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PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


ONE IN A SERIES OF BOOKS ON THE 
FUNDAMENTALS OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 
COVERING THE FIELD OF SUCCESS, 
HEALTH AND HAPPINESS 


BY 

DAVID V. BUSH 

AUTHOR OF 

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY AND SCIENTIFIC LIVING, 
PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SEX LIFE. ETC. 



VOLUME V 


DAVID V. BUSH. Publisher 
225 North Michigan Blvd. CHICAGO, ILL. 


^ & ^ s ^ 





Copyright, 1924 
DAVID V. BUSH 


Printed by 

The Huron Press, Inc. 
Chicago 


Works of David V. Bush 


Fundamentals of Practical Psychology 

A series of books on the Fundamentals of Practical Psychol¬ 
ogy, covering the field of Success, Health and Happiness. 
The list of books in this series, which are now ready and 
in process of preparation, follows: 

Vol. I. Applied Psychology and Scientific Living.$ 3.50 


Vol. II. Psychology of Success (Formerly Will 

Power and Success). 2.50 

Yol. III. Practical Psychology and Sex Life (Stu¬ 
dents Only) . 25.00 

Vol. IV. Psychology of Sex (How to Make Love 

and Marry) . 3.50 

Vol. V. Psychology of Healing. 3.50 

Vol. VI. How to Put the Subconscious Mind to 

Work . 3.50 

Vol. VII, Psychology of Emotion (How to Analyze 

Yourself and Others). 2.50 

Vol. VIII. Psychoanalysis (How to Tap Your Power 

of Mind) . 2.50 

Vol. IX. Grit and Gumption (The Psychology of 

Achievement) . 1.00 


Vol. X. Universality of the Master Mind (The 

Psychology of Universal Contentment) 1.00 

Other Books by Dr. Bush 

Character Analysis (How to Read People at Sight) . .$ 7.50 
Inspirational Poems (Novelette Binding, $2.50) Cloth 1.75 
Poems of Mastery and Love Verse (Novelette, $2.25) 

Cloth. 1.50 

Soul Poems and Love Lyrics (Novelette, $2.25) Cloth 1.50 
Psychoanalysis—Kinks in the Mind, Paper. 1.00 


DAVID V. BUSH, Publisher 
225 North Michigan Blvd. Chicago, Ill. 
















PREFACE 


The very great advance made in the science of mental 
healing during the last half of the nineteenth and the 
beginning of the twentieth century must be self-evident to 
the most superficial observer. However, both in conduct¬ 
ing classes and in giving private counsel all authorities 
come sooner or later face to face with what I believe 
impresses every unprejudiced person in the line of mental 
healing, namely, the wide variety of cults and the large 
number of teachers and organizations, each one thinking 
he or it has discovered the one and only true method of 
mind healing. To my mind this condition is one of the 
biggest obstacles the whole movement of the power of the 
mind to heal has yet to overcome. 

There can be no single person, no single organization 
which has sequestered all of the healing truth. To think 
otherwise is to be circumscribed by one’s own narrow 
prejudices. 

Anything is true that works. Call it what you may. 
Tabulate its manifestations in what fashion you will, 
designate it what you choose. It matters not what name 
you give it—if it works it is true. 

On every side we see cults, organizations and teachers 
who claim they draw from the only fount of mental healing 
truth. This, alas, is reverting to type, going back to the 
prejudiced, bigoted, circumscribed methods of the dark 
ages. 


4 



PBEFACE 


5 


That there may be made available to the public a set of 
books on mental healing which demonstrates the power of 
mind from every angle—showing that one method may be 
trne for Smith, another for Jones, and a third for Brown— 
is my object in presenting herewith various successful 
methods of healing. The desideratum, to my mind, in all 
healing, study and experience, is the development of a 
breadth of mind which will be nothing short of cosmic 
consciousness. In such a domain all will be able to worship 
at one shrine, enjoy peace of mind, fraternize with their 
fellows or commune with God in any manner they choose, 
free from the dictates of any powers that be, untrammeled 
by the chains of prejudice of their own or others’ forging. 

Never will the world come into a cosmic consciousness— 
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man—until 
we are willing to acknowledge the good which is to be 
found in realms other than our own whether it he in 
mental healing, in religion or in the life of practical 
experience. 

Hence, in dealing with the power of mind to heal, the 
purpose of this series is to present, all told, some twenty- 
eight different methods of healing as operated by different 
cults, teachers, religions, organizations and psychological 
centers, all of which have proved variously successful as 
they have been employed to meet the needs of various 
individuals. 


David V. Bush. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Part I. POWER OP MIND OVER THE 


BODY. 7 

Imagination 
Stigmatism 
How Mind Heals 

Part II. HOW THE MIND HEALS. 97 

Power Within 
Reserve Energy 

Part III. WHAT THE PATIENT HAS TO 

DO .187 


Preparing the Mind for Healing 
Malicious Animal Magnetism 
Expectancy 
Faith 

Part IV. WHAT MAKES A HEALER... .397 
How the Healer Works 

Part V. MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUC¬ 
TIONS FOR HEALER AND 

PATIENT .493 

Length of Time for Healing 







PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


PART I 


POWER OF MIND OVER BODY 
IMAGINATION 

After I had taken my first course in expression, 
had learned a few gestures in elocution and was 
ambitious to make a stab in the oratorical world, I 
went back to the little country town that gave me 
birth, in the foothills of Pennsylvania, and started 
my oratorical-stabbing-business in the little rural 
schoolhouses scattered over the mountains in my 
native state. 

If you had seen me in those early days when I 
was trying to get some of the rough edges knocked 
off, and the country twang out of my speech and 
the marks of the sod from my manners, you would 
have seen that there was more truth in this stab¬ 
bing business than humor. I had to try it on the 
dog somewhere, and the easiest kind of dog I could 
find was the good country folk in the land that 
gave me birth. 


7 






8 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


I had bought a cheap phonograph on the install¬ 
ment plan of five dollars down and two dollars per. 
I expected to pay this per by money made in my 
trying it on the dog-stabbing-oratorical start in the 
schoolhouses, “far from the maddening throng’’ 
where the good, kind country folk live the even 
tenor of their way. What a shock it must have 
been to their “tenor,” and what an experience it 
was to my “stab”! 

I had a picture of myself taken by one of the 
country photographers, to “adorn” the little 
folder I carried to announce to the good people 
what a great show they were going to see—if they 
came out. I got the picture, because it seemed to 
me that it was the customary thing, irrespective 
of the fact that, to get a good picture, one must 
have a good background. That didn’t seem to 
bother me in those days any more than it does 
now, for what’s in a name, anyhow, and what’s 
in a picture—provided you know how to pay to 
have it touched up a little? 

There was a blank date space below this pic¬ 
ture in which I stamped, with one of these little 
pocket rubber lettered outfits, the date on which 
I and my phonograph were to appear. Which 
made the bigger noise it is hard to tell now. I 


IMAGINATION 


9 


almost think, however, that the phonograph had 
me beaten, for it was the first one that was ever 
made and there was plenty of screech to it, lots 
of the metallic sound, plenty of grating and, 
withal, oodles of noise. As I look back over the 
quarter of a century and more that has passed, 
it occurs to me that nothing could have been 
much worse than the record I had, and any one 
who heard the “show” would have thought noth¬ 
ing could he worse than the recitations I gave— 
when the people came out to hear them. 

I was my own advance agent. I called upon 
the teacher and told him what a wonder I was, 
and that for fifteen cents a head I’d give a show 
in his schoolhouse some night the next week. I 
think I was to give the teacher enough money to 
pay for the coal and for lighting the schoolhouse 
—if I got it. The rest was to be my own—if 
there was any left. 

So the teacher let me announce to his school of 
fifteen or twenty little country lads and lassies, 
big farmer boys and country misses, that David 
V. Bush would give an entertainment, the next 
Wednesday night. The tickets would be fifteen 
cents for adults and ten cents for children. 


10 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Then I would sit down in a vacant seat behind 
one of those old desks made for two, get out my 
stamping outfit, begin to put in the name of the 
schoolhonse, the date and the price of my show. 
After stamping my stock announcement of the 
“show” on my little picture folder we handed 
these to the good children and they went on their 
way rejoicing to their homes. 

When Wednesday night rolled around—if 
Wednesday nights ever do roll around—David 
V. Bush and his phonograph arrived. Some¬ 
times the schoolhouse was lighted and sometimes 
it wasn’t. Sometimes in the mid of winter there 
was a fire in the stove, and sometimes there was 
not. If not, I proceeded to light the lamps and 
start the fire. Then I would sit down and wait. 
We didn’t carry a circus ticket wagon with us, 
so I was my own ticket seller and cashier, as well 
as advance agent and date stamper. I’d wait 
until the hour arrived for the show to begin. 
Many a time the hour arrived, but no show be¬ 
gan—no one came out. Rather discouraging prob¬ 
ably, but there was something within my soul that 
cried out for victory; that I should not be out¬ 
done and that disappointment never should take 
my life and encase me in the coffin of failure. If 


IMAGINATION 


11 


I didn’t make a go of it this Wednesday night, 
I’d try some other Wednesday night. 

And so I did. Some nights I had as many as 
fifteen people out to hear me. I think on one 
occasion I took in as much as four dollars and 
fifty cents, and when I got hack to the place where 
I slept that night, I was so elated and so happy 
and so joyous and so hilarious, that sleep did not 
enfold me in her blessed arms that entire night. 
I law awake counting money again and again, 
dreaming of the future and planning what I was 
going to do when I should be able to get out of 
the schoolhouse-showsphere into the wide, wide 
world. Wasn’t I on the highway to success, fame 
and fortune? Hadn’t I made four dollars and 
fifty cents—in thirty days’ effort to get out a 
crowd—if I could do it once I could do it again. 
If I had failed six times and failure repeated 
itself, and now I had succeeded once, why 
wouldn’t success repeat itself? Thus I reasoned 
-ud thought, planned, dreamed, and by the time 
the cock—a most welcome companion—crowed in 
the morning to tell me that another day had 
dawned and all was well, I owned the world— 
in my mind, which is the best way to own it, 
anyhow. 


12 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


With this capital of four dollars and fifty cents, 
I went to a blessed old aunt of mine, and told her 
that if I had a horse and buggy or cutter—for the 
snow covered the ground—I believed that my for¬ 
tune was made, and I could go throughout the 
country, fifty miles and more from the railroad, 
and return to her in the spring with not only 
money enough to pay for my horse outfit, but with 
enough to start out to buy the world. The dear 
old soul mortgaged her farm to put fifty dollars 
into my hands. It was ten years before I could 
pay hack that fifty dollars, hut what a wonderful 
aunt she was! 

So I started out with my horse and buggy, 
thinking that probably I could get along once in a 
while with a buggy by shoveling through the 
snowdrifts, and that, should we have any bare 
spots, it would he hard to draw a cutter. I started 
out with my horse and buggy and a shovel, with 
my dear old aunt waiting for the news that the 
horse was paid for, but all that winter I never 
came across another four dollars and fifty cents 
in gate receipts for one night! The farther I 
went from the railroad, the more severe became 
the weather. The snow fell and fell and fell! 


IMAGINATION 


13 


The wind blew and blew and blew! Finally I was 
stalled for several weeks because of the depth of 
the snow and the severity of the weather. I could 
not get out, even to make my own dates, and if I 
had been able to do it, the good people could not 
have come to my entertainments. The weather 
forbade. 


Where Is It Cold? 


If there is any place in this wide world, where it 
seems to me, it can be colder than any other, and 
you feel it, it’s in the mountainous country of 
northeastern Pennsylvania, where the dampness 
adds to the frigidity of the thermometer when the 
weather boss gets down to real weather bossing. 

While thus held up, I stopped in a farmhouse 
where the usual wonderful rural hospitality pre¬ 
vailed. The good farmer had been at one of my 
entertainments. He invited me to his house. He 
knew I would be a great man some time and told 
me so. (Bless his good rural heart.) So I did 
“ chores’’ and odd jobs about the farm to pay for 
my board while thus snowed in. This helped to 
melt the Eskimo atmosphere considerably. The 
first night I slept in this farmhouse, they put me 
upstairs in a room through which ran a stove pipe 
from the room below. I had been in other country 
houses where this same way of heating the up¬ 
stairs was used, so that I felt very comfortable 
when I went to bed. In the morning I jumped up, 
tracked through snow on the floor to put down the 
windows and dress with teeth chattering and goose 
pimples pimpling. 


14 


IMAGINATION 


15 


But I got a glance at the stove pipe, so that I 
put on my duds in almost normal comfort and 
ease. Why should I be cold when the stove pipe 
was heating my room from the floor below? So 
my teeth stopped chattering and my goose pimples 
stopped pimpling. When I had finished dressing 
and went over to the stove pipe to place my hands 
near it for a final warming before going down¬ 
stairs, lo and behold! my hand touched the pipe 
and it was ice cold! Instantly I became frigid 
from the roots of my hair to the ends of my toes. 
While I thought the stove pipe was heating my 
room, I thought I was warm; but the instant I 
discovered I was in a room under which was a 
stove with no fire in it, I became as cold as a totem 
pole in Alaska. My teeth started chattering again, 
my goose pimples pimpling again, my fingers be¬ 
came numb and red and I went downstairs shiver¬ 
ing like a maple leaf in a North Dakota blizzard. 

When imagination pictured a fire in the stove 
below and the heat from the pipe above, I was 
very comfortable. When the cold facts faced me, 
imagination took wings and fled and reality being 
no longer overcome by fancy, I saw things as 
they were in cold facts—in physical reality. 


16 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The important thing, however, is to get the real 
facts in mental reality. We can virtually imagine a 
world of reality or a world of fancy. The man 
who uses fancy and builds the structure of his 
career and happiness with the bricks and mortar 
of constructive and healthful imagination, is the 
man who may be able to live above his environ¬ 
ment, oblivious to the discouraging and unhappy 
conditions around him, irrespective of social 
standing, misfortunes, and conditions in a world 
made real to him by imagination. 

The chamber of imagery may be so filled by 
the happy thoughts of success, health, and happi¬ 
ness that the material reality of lack, limitation, 
sickness, poverty, and failure is only the dis¬ 
carded human cocoon on the material plane from 
which you have evolved and are evolving to a 
permanent world of success, health, and happiness 
made possible by imagination—the weaver of 
man’s destiny. 

Coue says imagination is the only way mind 
heals. Coue is only partly right as those who 
follow the various methods of healing which we 
have presented in this book and others in the 
series can prove. But the fact remains that the 
condition of the mind has as much to do in making 


IMAGINATION 


17 


and keeping one well as in making and keeping 
one successful and happy. 

It is the purpose of this volume to adduce 
enough evidence from great medical and scien¬ 
tific men, as well as from the author’s own experi¬ 
ence, to assure the reader that there is more power 
in the mind to heal the body and keep it well than 
there is in drugs and poison. 

Frank F. Moore, in “A Journalist’s Note 
Book,” tells the following amusing and significant 
story of the influence of imagination upon health. 
“A young civil servant in India, feeling fagged 
from the excessive heat and from long hours of 
work, consulted the best doctor within reach. The 
doctor looked him over, sounded his heart and 
lungs, and then said gravely, ‘I will write you to¬ 
morrow.’ The next day the young man received a 
letter telling him that his left lung was gone and 
his heart seriously affected, and advising him to 
lose no time in adjusting his business affairs. ‘Of 
course, you may live for weeks,’ the letter said, 
‘but you had best not leave important matters 
undecided.’ Naturally, the young official was dis¬ 
mayed by so dark a prognosis—nothing less than 
a death warrant. Within twenty-four hours he 
was having difficulty with his respiration, and was 


18 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


seized with an acute paint in the region of the 
heart. He took to his bed with the feeling that he 
should never rise from it. During the night he 
became so much worse that his servant sent for 
the doctor. ‘What on earth have you been doing 
to yourself?’ demanded the doctor. ‘There were 
no indications of this sort when I saw you yester¬ 
day V ‘ It is my heart, I suppose, ’ weakly answered 
the patient. ‘Your heart!’ repeated the doctor. 
‘Your heart was all right yesterday.’ ‘My lungs, 
then.’ ‘What is the matter with you, man? You 
don’t seem to have been drinking?’ ‘Your letter,’ 
gasped the patient. ‘You said I had only a few 
weeks to live.’ ‘Are you crazy?’ said the doctor. 
‘I wrote you to take a few weeks’ vacation in the 
hills, and you would be all right.’ For reply the 
patient drew the letter from under the bedclothes 
and gave it to the doctor. ‘Heavens!’ cried that 
gentleman as he glanced at it, ‘This was meant 
for another man! My assistant has mixed up the 
letters.’ The young man at once sat up in bed 
and made a rapid recovery. And what of the pa¬ 
tient for whom the direful prognosis was 
intended? Delighted with the report that a 
sojourn in the hills would set him right, he started 
at once, and five years later was in fair health.” 


Mind Healing 

An extract from editorial in the London Lancet 
of June, 1885, by Buchanan, Prof, of Surgery, 
Glasgow University, says: 

There can be no question that faith-healing is a fact. 
The brain is not simply the organ of the mind; it is also 
the chief centre or series of centres of the nervous system, 
by which the whole body is energized, and its component 
parts, with their several functions, are governed and regu¬ 
lated. 

Who says that the Scotch are not up and 
a-coming? Even a Ku Kluxer can 0. K. in the 
open this medical endorsement without his Ku 
Klux garb. 

Deaf 

In one of my classes three doctors told of three 
people who heard, although one person suffered 
from punctured ear drums, another person had no 
ear drums at all, and the ear drums of the third 
person had been destroyed. Those people were 
actually able to hear sounds as though the ear 
drums and auditory nerves were normal. I won¬ 
der if that brought to your mind Beethoven, who 
was stone deaf and yet heard wonderful har¬ 
monies and wrote music that no other composer 
ever surpassed. Beethoven in his brain—in his 


19 


20 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


mind—actually heard more harmony than ninety- 
nine hundredths of human beings who have nor¬ 
mal ear drums. 

Wise is the man who does not shake his head, 
wag his tongue or beat the air “ag’in” mental 
science. All is mind. It is all a matter of how 
that mind is educated, how we are using it, how 
it is developed. The ordinary human has not 
developed one-tenth of his senses. We have not 
even reached the border line of mental science. 
We are out in the wilderness groping our way to 
a better understanding of the power of mind. The 
advanced thinkers, who are beginning to realize 
the efficacy of mind power, look up through the 
trees in our mental wilderness and get a glimpse 
of the ray of intellectual understanding from the 
sky of mental science above. The sun of the power 
of mind has not yet fully risen upon the horizon 
of intellectuality. Just a few beams of light are 
puncturing the dense forests of man’s mentality, 
but go on, brave soul, go on! You who believe in 
this are trail blazers. You are cutting the way in 
the forests of mental darkness, you are blazing a 
path for posterity to follow in your steps, you are 
leading mankind into the open wind-swept prairies 
of mental science. Ho the best you can. Plod on. 


IMAGINATION 


21 


Continue to blaze the trail, and your children 
will rise up and call you “blessed.” 

The inter-relation of the mind and body, while 
comparatively a new study, has been very seri¬ 
ously considered by many leading physicians and 
medical authorities for the last hundred years, 
until today I believe every up-to-the-minute physi¬ 
cian recognizes that in sickness and health, the 
mind has as much to do in effecting a cure as the 
body. 

This, of course, has long been the burden of the 
gospel of applied psychology. While psychology 
treats primarily of the action of the mind and 
physiology of the bodily organisms and functions, 
yet the two are so closely related that physiolo¬ 
gists and psychologists ought to be extremely 
friendly. Of the two, however, i. e. mind and 
body, there is no doubt that mind is the more 
important. Therefore, it is the mind that we are 
primarily interested in, but every individual mind 
resides within, or at least expresses itself through 
the body. Hence, upon the preservation of that 
body and the proper functioning thereof, depend 
our health, our comfort and our lives. 

It is the purpose of the author in this section 
of the Power of the Mind Over the Body, to ad- 


22 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


duce enough authority from the scientific world 
outside his own profession, to make it self-evident 
that the mind has power over the body to heal. 

In this regard, Alfred T. Schofield, M. H., in the 
Unconscious Mind , says: 

Sensations Psychical Not Physical 

In entering npon this interesting and important sub¬ 
ject, let us clear the ground by emphasizing the suffi¬ 
ciently obvious fact that the special, and indeed all, sensa¬ 
tions are psychical, and not physical. The apparatus is 
physical, but sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and com¬ 
mon sensation are functions of the mind, not of the body; 
while the media which appropriately convey to the brain 
the various vibrations which the mind recognizes under 
these names, are all physical and material. 

While Henry Wood in Ideal Suggestions 
Through Mental Photography comments as fol¬ 
lows : 

Turning to therapeutic systems, mental causation is in 
substantial harmony with the highest and best thought of 
the seers and philosophers, from Plato down to the present 
time. It is only medical science, as it has gradually 
degenerated into a great drug prescription system, that 
seeks for primary causation in the inert clay of the body: 

Inter-relation of Mind and Body 

Still another great authority has this to say in 
regard to the inter-relation of mind and body: 


IMAGINATION 


23 


To say that the mind controls the body presupposes that 
mind and body are distinct entities, the one belonging to a 
spiritual world, the other to a world of matter. 

That the mind is master of the body is a settled prin¬ 
ciple of science. But we realize that its acceptance may 
require you to lay aside some preconceived prejudices. You 
may be one of those who believe that the mind is nothing 
more nor less than brain activity. You may believe that 
the body is all there is to man and that mind-action is 
merely one of its functions. 

If so, we want you nevertheless to realize that, while as a 
matter, of philosophic speculation you retain these opinions, 
you may at the same time for practical purposes regard 
the mind as an independent causal agency and believe that 
it can and does control and determine and cause any and 
every kind of bodily activity. We want you to do this 
because this conclusion is at the basis of a practical system 
of mental efficiency and because, as we shall at once show 
you, it is capable of proof by the established methods of 
physical science. 

Mental, Not Physical 

In a great bowl shaped motordrome, in Newark, 
N. J., was held a bicycle race. The frenzied crowd 
was wildly cheering. Thousands upon thousands 
were watching with bated breath the riders whirl¬ 
ing by at the blinding speed of ninety-two miles 
an hour, when the motorcycle of one of the con¬ 
testants went wrong. It sped up the 28-foot in- 


24 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


cline like lightning, then hurled its rider over the 
rim to instant death. The motorcycle plowed into 
a deep-set iron pillar. Then this twisted chug¬ 
ging engine of death rebounded from the post and 
rolled over and over down the saucer to the lower 
level of the track. 

Just a little way behind the first racer flashed 
the second contestant, blind to everything except 
the frenzied speed that he could get out of his 
machine, knowing nothing of the tragedy just 
enacted, he came tearing along. The screams and 
yells of warning from the crowd went unheeded. 
The mind of the rider was closed to all sensa¬ 
tions but one. The terrified throng saw the com¬ 
ing of a second tragedy. The screams of warn¬ 
ing from the crowd turned into low moaning, into 
an involuntary hut impotent prayer for the mercy 
that could not come. The second motorcycle shot 
with a speed surpassing that of an express train 
into the wreck of the first machine, then leaped 
into the air. The body of its rider was hurled 
fifty feet over the handle bars and fell at the bot¬ 
tom of the track a mass of human wreckage, limp, 
unconscious. Within two hours, he was dead. 

A dreadful spectacle of death such as this gives 
food for thought to the careful student of the 


IMAGINATION 


25 


mind. The mass of human beings in the grand¬ 
stand were filled with confusion, cries of fright 
and panic, sobs, hysteria and screams arose. Many 
women fainted. Many were afflicted with nausea. 
With others the muscles of speech contracted 
convulsively. Hearts stopped beating. Knees 
gave way. What caused this ? Had the whirling 
engine of destruction struck these people? No! 
Observe that all of these emotions were wholly 
and purely the effects of mind—reacting to sen¬ 
sations—of sight and sound. 

The various emotional conditions were aroused 
without any conscious effort on the part of the 
onlookers. Their knees gave way, their muscles 
contracted, speech was lost, nausea ensued, faint¬ 
ing followed—all without the conscious mind of 
the individuals being cognizant of what took 
place. 

So you will find that not only is your body 
constantly doing things because your mind wills 
that it should, but also is incessantly doing things 
for the simple reason that they are expressions 
of a passing thought. 

One of the most demonstrable principles of 
human consciousness is that every idea tends to 
express itself in some form of bodily activity. 


26 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


A newspaper in Chicago published the follow¬ 
ing: “Not poisoned, but dead because she 
thought she was poisoned, 99 was the singular ver¬ 
dict pronounced by Coroner’s Physician Springer 
today, after performing an autopsy on the body 
of Virginia Jackson, an aged negro woman and 
former slave. “This old lady thought she had 
been poisoned,” said Hr. Springer, “and it 
affected her heart to such an extent that it killed 
her. ’ 9 

There is a well authenticated case of a butcher, 
who, while trying to hang up a heavy piece of 
meat, slipped and was himself caught by the arm 
upon the hook. When he was taken to a surgeon, 
the butcher said he was suffering so much that 
he could not endure the removal of his coat; the 
sleeve must be cut off. When this was done, it 
was found that the hook had passed through his 
clothing close to the skin, but had not even 
scratched it. 


Mind Affects the Body 

And Professor James, the greatest of great psy¬ 
chologists, has said: 

The fact is that there is no sort of consciousness what 
ever, be it sensation, feeling or idea, which does not di¬ 
rectly and of itself tend to discharge into some motor 
effect. The motor effect need not always be an outer 
stroke of behavior. It may be only an alteration of the 
heartbeats or breathing, or a modification in the distribu¬ 
tion of the blood, such as blushing or turning pale; or 
what not. But in any case, it is there in some shape when 
any consciousness is there; and a belief as fundamental as 
any in modern psychology, is the belief at last attained, 
that conscious processes of any sort, conscious processes 
merely as such, must pass over into motion, open or con¬ 
cealed. 

Sir B. W. Richardson, M. D., says: 

Eruptions of the skin frequently follow excessive men¬ 
tal strain. In all these, as well as in cancer, epilepsy and 
mania, the cause is frequently partly or wholly mental. 
It is remarkable how little the question of the origin of 
physical disease from mental influences has been studied. 

Bain has also said: 

There have occurred many instances of death, or men¬ 
tal derangement, from a shock of grief, pain, or calamity; 
this is in accordance with the general law. 

Speaking of the effect of the mind upon the 
body, the great Darwin says: 


27 


28 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In protracted grief the circulation becomes languid; 
the face pale; the muscles flaccid; the eyelids droop; the 
head hangs on the contracted chest; the lips, cheeks and 
lower jaw all sink downward from their own weight. The 
whole expression of a man in good spirits is exactly oppo¬ 
site of the one suffering from sorrow. 

Mind and Features 

In The Force of Mind, Alfred T. Schofield, 
M. D.,* voices the same belief: 

The general appearance of a man is largely a physical 
expression of his mind, and his character is more or less 
legibly stamped upon the body. The state of the mind 
unconsciously alters the poise of the head, of the shoulders, 
arms and legs, and trunk. A short time of trouble may 
make a man look many years older than before it com¬ 
menced. The eye will lose its brightness, the face will 
become withered, the brow wrinkled, and the skin harsh. 

With regard to sensation generally, Hack Tuke asserts 
that there is no sensation—general or special—excited by 
agents acting upon the body from without, which cannot 
also be excited from within by emotional states affecting 
the sensory centres. 

We must remember that though the usual exciting causes 
of sight, sound, or common sensation are thought to be 
unusual, they are not so; and in their absence sight, sound, 
and sensations may all be consciously experienced. Com¬ 
mon and special sensations may indubitably be aroused by 

*The quotations in this volume from The Force of Mind by 
Alfred T. Schofield, is given by permission of Funk & Wagnalls 
Co., Publishers, New York. 



IMAGINATION 


29 


abnormal physical means as well as by purely mental 
agencies. Pressure on the nerves from a tumor or a blow 
will illustrate the former case and vivid ideas the latter. 

While Olston puts it thus: 

If the general law of the body be that of cheer, hope, 
joy, love and desire for health and happiness give growth 
to tissue, strong and normal action to the organs of the 
body, and thereby health in general; while fear, melan¬ 
choly, malice, hatred, dejection, loss of confidence and all 
other morbid states of mind tend to the lassitude of the 
functions and the depletion of the organs—I feel that too 
much enthusiasm cannot be raised in the reader’s mind 
upon these all-important facts. 

A Power Within Each One 

This new field of mind is revealing an intricate and 
intimate relation between itself and every part of the body. 
It has shown science that within man are intelligent 
powers which physiology and psychology heretofore have 
not recognized. 

This new discovery of the power within each 
individual has taught man to make the organs of 
the body serve him instead of dominating him. So 
every part of the physical being is made subject 
to the person who understands the power of the 
mind. 

Flammarion has well said: 

An idea, an impression, a mental commotion, while 
entirely internal, can produce in another direction physio¬ 
logical effects more or less intense, and is even capable of 


30 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


causing death. Examples are not wanting of persons 
dying suddenly in consequence of emotion. The power 
which imagination is capable of exercising over life has 
long been established. The experiment performed in the 
last century of a man condemned to death, who was made 
the subject of a study by medical men, is well known. The 
subject of the experiment was fastened securely to a table 
with strong straps, his eyes were bandaged, and he was 
then told that he was to bleed from the neck until every 
drop of his blood had been drained. After this an insig¬ 
nificant puncture was made in his skin with the point of a 
needle, and a syphon arranged near his head in such a 
manner as to allow a stream of water to flow over his neck 
and fall with a slight sound to a basin placed on the floor. 
At the end of six minutes the condemned man, believing 
that he had lost at least seven or eight quarts of blood, died 
in terror. 

Suggestion and the Body- 

In “Suggestion and Auto Suggestion,’’ Ban- 
douin has made the following statement: 

Violent emotion appears to heighten the force of sugges¬ 
tions of any kind. Intense fear may thus have two very 
different results, the divergence depending on the nature of 
the idea present in the mind. Fear may glue the feet to 
the ground. A motor dashes round the corner when you 
are walking in the middle of the road; you are afraid you 
will not be able to get out of the way in time, and conse¬ 
quently you cannot move a step. On the other hand, fear 
may restore the use of his legs to a paralytic. In 1915, in 
one of the air-raids on Paris, a paralyzed woman living on 


IMAGINATION 


31 


the fifth story found herself in the porter’s lodge on the 
ground floor, without knowing how she got there; a bomb 
had exploded close at hand, and she had fled downstairs in 
a moment; the idea of flight at all hazards had seized her 
mind, and under the influence of the violent emotion this 
idea had been transformed into action.* 

To this series of examples, we might add those of “sug¬ 
gestion which kills.” A nun, whose case was noted by 
Coue, was confined to bed by illness during the winter. 
She heard or imagined she heard her doctor murmur, “she 
won’t outlive April.” This idea became fixed in her mind. 
Nevertheless, for the time being she got better, left her 
bed, and seemed quite strong again. But to every visitor 
she said, shaking her head, that she felt sure she would die 
in April. On April 1st her appetite disappeared as if by 
magic. A few days later she took to her bed once more, and 
died shortly before the end of the month. 

Tolstoi, in his later years, declared that the number 7 
was fatal to him. In November 7, 1905, in his Readings 
for Every Day of the Year, he gives a number of thoughts 
on death. On November 7, 1910 (0. S.), he died after a 
few days’ illness, although his condition “had nof seemed 
grave.” 

Recall, further, the case of the man sentenced to death, 
who was told he was to perish as the victim of a scientific 

*“In elucidation of this example, it is necessary to point out 
that in man, as in the lower animals, fear shows itself in two 
very different forms. In some cases fear stimulates to flight; 
in other cases fear stimulates to concealment and immobility. 
Thus there are two distinct types of fear, and English authors 
accordingly speak of the instinct for flight, and the instinct 
for concealment. It would be an error to assert that any kind 
of emotion can intensify any kind of suggestion.” 



32 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


experiment. A harmless prick was made in each of his 
limbs; a tap was turned on in the room and he was told the 
water running was his blood flowing from the wounds; 
believing this, he died. 

It is well known that there is no disease of the 
human body that may not be created, or simu¬ 
lated, by the power of mind when stimulated by 
suggestion. 

All in His Mind 

Gillet, in L’auto-suggestion, Bulletin Ecole de 
Nancy, 1913, tells of a man in a closely ventilated 
room who felt that he just must have fresh 
air. . . . 

Greatly distressed for breath, he got out of bed and 
hunted for the matches. He had a craving for fresh air, 
but he could not find the window. “Confound these third- 
rate hotels, where one gropes vainly in the dark!” He is 
suffocating, and he clamors for air. Feeling about, he at 
length finds a pane of glass. “Damn it all, where’s the 
window bolt? . . . Never mind, this will do!” and he 
breaks the pane. The fragments fall to the floor. Now 
he can breathe; again and again he fills his chest with 
the fresh air; the throbbing at his temples passes and he 
goes back to bed. “Saved!” . . .Next morning one of the 
items in his bill was, “Broken clockcase, fr. 4.35.” 

In the “Lancet” for January, 1880, we read that a 
gentleman (fifty-six) thought he had swallowed his false 
teeth. He felt them in the pharynx. There was a hard 
swelling behind the larynx, and a surgeon was telegraphed 


IMAGINATION 


33 


for. The symptoms were most distressing and real, until 
the missing teeth were found in a drawer. 

Spitzka gives a number of cases suffering from agon¬ 
izing hydrophobia, which recovered on hearing the dogs 
that had bitten them were not mad. 

Contagion and Mind 

Also as to infectious disease, tlie mind is a 
potent factor. A doctor owes his immunity to 
this fact far more than to any care he takes, and 
so do nurses. The surest way to he attacked with 
an infectious disease is to be afraid of it. Fear 
and the thought of sickness are of themselves 
sufficient to cause the same. 

So we are coming more and more to agree with 
the great John Hunter, a noted surgeon and a 
most scientific and practical-minded man, who 
once said: “As one state of mind is capable of 
producing disease, so another state of mind effects 
a cure.” 

Mind Vs. Medicine 

Hr. Selwyn A. Russell, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 
in an article on “The Scientific Basis of Mind 
Cure,” in American Medicine, March 12, 1904, 
says: 


34 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


While we are not yet able to get on without medicines, 
which seems still to have limited use, the more study we 
give to the origin of disease the more potent and far- 
reaching seem mental influences. The mind is the first 
fact and must lead; the body is secondary and must follow. 
But with a sound body, perfectly obedient to the laws of 
nature and subject to a mind free and independent, one 
might naturally expect perfection in health, which means, 
of course, the absence of disease, and were it not for dis¬ 
ease there would be no need of medicines. 

“The Lancet” records a case of Dr. Barkas of 
a woman (fifty-eight) with supposed disease of 
every organ, with pains everywhere, who tried 
every method of cure, but was at last experi¬ 
mentally cured by mental therapeutics pure and 
simple. Assured that death would result from 
her state, and that a certain medicine would in¬ 
fallibly cure her, provided it was administered 
by an experienced nurse, one tablespoonful of 
pure distilled water was given her at 7, 12, 5 and 
10 o’clock, to the second with scrupulous care; 
and in less than three weeks all pain ceased, all 
diseases were cured, and remained so. This is a 
valuable experiment as excluding every material 
remedy whatever, and proving that it is the 
mental factor alone that cures; however, it may 
be generally associated with material remedies. 

Dr. Sweetzer tells us of a lady, who, feeling a 


IMAGINATION 


35 


living frog fall into her hosom from the clutches 
of a bird, was seized with such profuse haemop¬ 
tysis that she lived only a few minutes. 


We Are What We Think We Are 

Again quoting Dr. Schofield* we find that: 

Vomiting is not only excited by injuries to the brain, 
apart from disorders of the stomach, but by the mind 
alone. A house surgeon of Dr. Durand gave one hundred 
patients colored water, and told them it was a strong 
emetic given in mistake. Eighty of them were violently 
sick in consequence. 

In connection with the action of the mind on the di¬ 
gestive canal, I will give a striking instance of its power 
in producing a disease, so incredible on the face of it, 
that it is well to say that I will personally vouch for every 
detail. Early in 1897 a woman was admitted to a London 
hospital with faecal vomiting. Her abdomen was covered 
with the scars of various laparotomies made in order to 
find out the cause. The whole of the abdominal contents 
had already been carefully examined, but, as the vomiting 
persisted, a fresh opening was made once more and the 
colon specially overhauled. All the viscera were healthy; 
nevertheless the faecal vomiting was genuine. Most careful 
experiments conducted by the surgeon and house-surgeon 
yielded almost incredible results. Two ounces of castor oil 
introduced into the rectum were vomited with faecal matter 
in from ten to fifteen minutes. Half a pint of water 
stained with methyl blue, introduced into the rectum was 
vomited in the same time, and so on. The cause of this 
marvelous reversed peristalsis was purely mental, and the 
patient was eventually relieved by wholly mental discipline 
and therapeutics, and was discharged cured. Although this 

•The “Force of Mind,” p. 85. 

36 



IMAGINATION 


37 


confessedly is a case of functional disease, it nevertheless 
remains one of the most remarkable instances of the power 
of the unconscious mind over the body. To some, perhaps, 
this seems too much to assume. But let us see if any 
alternative theory is possible. The abdomen had been 
repeatedly opened in the belief that the cause was physical 
and material, but without result. Moreover, the cure was 
effected without the removal of any physical irritant or 
other agent. The cause was therefore mental. 

Apart from disease, the mind naturally affects the renal 
secretion. Eleven parts of urine are secreted in repose, 
compared with thirteen when the brain is active (allowing 
for other disturbing factors). The amount of urea is also 
augmented. 

Dr. Clifford Allbutt says it is an undoubted clinical fact 
that granular kidney is often produced by prolonged men¬ 
tal anxiety. 

Incontinence and retention are both produced by the 
mind apart from physical causes, and are also often aggra¬ 
vated by it where these are present. 

It is an interesting fact, though it proves nothing, that 
from sympathy, after the death of Napoleon III, four 
persons consulted Sir James Paget for stone in the blad¬ 
der who had no physical sign of it, though they described 
the symptoms. 

Cancer 

Dr. Murchison says: 

I have been surprised how often patients with primary 
cancer of the liver have traced the cause of this ill-health 


38 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


to protracted grief or anxiety. The cases have been far too 
numerous to be accounted for as mere coincidences. 

Dr. Snow (“Lancet,” 1880) even asserts his 
conviction that “the vast majority of cases of can¬ 
cer, especially of breast and uterine cancer, are 
due to mental anxiety.” 

Cholera 

With regard to cholera, Sir W. Stokes says: “The first 
sight of cholera patients gives rise to symptoms of cholera 
afterwards. 


Fever 

Sir S. Baker, the explorer of the Nile, says that “any 
severe grief or anger is almost certain to be succeeded by 
fever in certain parts of Africa.” 

Paralysis 

“In the general paralysis of the insane (apart from 
syphilis),” according to Dr. Mickle, endorsed by Dr. Blan- 
ford, “mental strain and overstrain are the great patho¬ 
logical factors.” 


Scurvy 

Scurvy is often stopped by naval engagements, and the 
British Fleet is remarkably healthy after victories; while 
Professor Bolleston points out that after defeat an army 
“readily succumbs to dysentery, scurvy, malarial fever, 
and other diseases, that have comparatively little effect in 
opposite circumstances.” 


IMAGINATION 


39 


Uterine Diseases—Fibroids— 
Premature Labor 

Turning to uterine diseases, we may couple the 
action of the mind with the growth of fibroids, 
with abortion and premature labor, with concep¬ 
tion and its products, both in their mental and 
physical characters. Dr. Clouston observes :* 

Nothing is more common than for the menstrual dis¬ 
charge to be diminished, arrested, or increased by mental 
and nervous influences. Any practitioner of physic who 
treats menstrual disturbances without reference to the 
patient’s mental and general brain condition will certainly 
not succeed fully in his efforts. The whole subject of the 
function of reproduction and sex is quite as much mental 
as bodily. It relates as much to the brain cortex and the 
mind as to the organs of sex and generation. A man who 
treats spermatorrhoea, masturbation, impotence, hysteria, 
and the allied affections without taking into account the 
affective and inhibitory state of his patient, and without 
using moral and mental means as well as physical agencies, 
is certainly acting on unphysiological lines. 

I cannot help adverting here to what I consider the 
rash and unjustifiable way the operations of castration 
and removing ovaries and appendages were recently looked 
at, without any reference to their mental effects on the 
subjects of them. We know that there are two primary 
instincts in all the higher animal kingdom—to live and 
to reproduce. No philosophic-minded gynaecologist can 


*Dr. Clouston, British Medical Journal, January 18, 1896. 



40 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


look lightly on the deliberate extinction, by surgical means, 
of the essential organs of reproduction. Profound mental 
changes commonly follow after this in young subjects. 
The difference between the mental qualities of an ox and 
a bull should be sufficiently evident even to the most 
surgical-minded gynaecologist. Yet I have seen the opera¬ 
tion recommended with as little consideration of mental 
consequences as the opening of a whitlow. Depend upon it, 
it may be almost as great a crime to castrate as to kill. 

These instances are taken from Dr. Tuke’s 
famous book: 

Fits 

In May, 1873, a stockbroker in Paris fell down 
in an apoplectic tit, and soon died on hearing that 
his valet had been found shot through the head. 

In the ‘ ‘ Lancet / 9 1867, is the case of a woman 
forty-three years old who died in a fit from find¬ 
ing her daughter, whom she supposed to have been 
killed in an accident, come home unexpectedly. 

Death 

A woman, having nursed her sister during a 
long illness until her death, did not then give way 
to grief, but appeared perfectly unmoved. A 
fortnight after she was found dead in her bed, 
but there was no post-mortem cause found, except 
the depressing influence of pent-up grief through 
the nervous system. 


IMAGINATION 


41 


A laundress coming home along a lonely road 
from a solitary walk looked ill and excited; she 
said that a man had jumped out of a cemetery 
as she passed. She died at the supper table. 
The post-mortem examination showed all the or¬ 
gans healthy except the heart, and the verdict 
was “Death from syncope due to shock .’’ 

Dr. Walsh says: “A man came to insure his 
life in full vigor and was rejected, and told he 
had a diseased heart. He became melancholic and 
died the week after.” 

Signor Laura, in reporting on a station master 
who had died suddenly after hearing that his sta¬ 
tion had been robbed, points out that “sudden 
mental emotion may cause death in persons of 
robust health in a very remarkable way.” 


Tomatoes Are Poison? 

Albert B. Olston tells of a friend, by name Max 
McCann, who told him of a case related to him by 
his mother. She was living at the time in Ohio. 
In her garden she had a few tomato vines grow¬ 
ing. She had them as a curiosity and for show. 
They were thought to be deadly poison. At the 
time the tomatoes were ripe. 

Her sister, a young lady of twenty, was there 
from the East visiting. One afternoon she went 
alone into the garden. She had never seen toma¬ 
toes before, and did not know what they were. 
She picked one and was eating it when her sister 
saw her. She screamed to her that those were 
poison. The young lady had eaten half of a large 
one. The sister’s cry brought the neighbors. A 
doctor was sent for. The idea of poison was fixed 
in the minds of all present. They used all the 
means at hand, but without avail. She died in 
agony in a short time. 

Surgery and Mind 

Hudson in the “Law of Mental Medicine,”* 
also touches upon surgery in this regard: 

I know that I shall be trespassing npon the domain of a 
popular surgical fad when I venture to instance appendi- 

*The Law of Mental Medicine, by Thomson Jay Hudson. 

McClurg & Co., Publishers. 


42 



IMAGINATION 


43 


citis as a possible example of a disease caused by “ex¬ 
pectant attention” or suggestion. Certain it is that in the 
good old days, before it was generally known that man 
had such a thing as a vermiform appendix concealed about 
his person, cases of appendicitis were very rare; and when 
one did come to light it was invariably said to be due to 
the presence of some foreign substance—-generally a seed 
of some fruit that the patient had eaten. But since it 
was discovered that the vermiform appendix can be re¬ 
moved for a few hundred dollars without necessarily kill¬ 
ing the patient out of hand, the people have been educated 
in respect to that mysterious portion of their anatomy; and 
cases of appendicitis have multiplied proportionately, so 
that now it must be a very ignorant man (or a very poor 
one) who cannot manage to have at least one case of 
appendicitis; and no surgeon can properly be considered 
up to date who has been unable to capture at least half-a- 
dozen vermiform appendices. 

I am not unmindful that surgeons are provided with a 
very plausible explanation of this phenomenal increase of 
cases of appendicitis within the last quarter of a century. 
They explain it on the ground that there are really no 
more cases of appendicitis now than formerly, in propor¬ 
tion to the population, but that, owing to ignorance, the 
doctors formerly attributed such cases to other causes, such 
as peritonitis, and thus sacrificed many lives that might 
have been saved by an operation had the seat of the disease 
been recognized. 

Candor compels the admission that there may be much 
truth in the explanation. But it certainly does not account 
for all the increase, nor does it explain certain salient 


44 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


peculiarities of modern appendicitis. For instance, for¬ 
merly that disease was always attributed to the presence 
of some irritant foreign substance in the mouth of the 
appendix; now, in more than half of the cases, no foreign 
substance is found. But, in all reported cases, serious 
inflammation was found to exist—enough, at least, to 
confirm the doctor’s diagnosis and justify the operation. 
What the unreported cases reveal there is no means of 
knowing. 

One of the salient peculiarities of the modern variety 
of appendicitis is that it prevails most among the edu¬ 
cated, refined and well to do. It seems to avoid carefully 
the homes of poverty and ignorance. I have no statistics 
to verify this statement, and it may be all wrong. But it 
is popularly believed to be true that “appendicitis is the 
rich man’s disease.” I certainly have never known of a 
case that contradicts that belief. 

But it would be grossly unjust to the medical profession 
to accept the popular explanation of the fact, which is, of 
course, that the doctor’s diagnosis is governed by the ability 
of the patient to pay for an operation. This is not only 
palpably unjust, but it is unnecessary. In fact, if there 
was no other explanation, I should doubt the fact, “for 
they are all honorable men.” To those who have followed 
what has been said in regard to the potency of suggestion, 
it will be apparent that the prevalence of the disease among 
the educated classes is just what one might expect, for the 
following reasons: 

In the first place, it is only the educated classes who 
know much about the disease, and it requires some knowl¬ 
edge of anatomy to locate definitely the vermiform appen- 


IMAGINATION 


45 


dix. The essential conditions necessary to enable one to 
concentrate his mind upon that appendage are, therefore, 
present with the well informed and entirely absent in the 
minds of the ignorant. That is to say, one must know 
where to expect pain before he can induce it by “expectant 
attention.” The ignorant, however, are not always immune, 
provided they think they know where to look for untoward 
symptoms, and are cursed with a morbid suggestibility. 
For instance, I knew one of that class who once became 
excited on the subject of appendicitis, and proceeded to 
inquire of a friend just where the vermiform appendix 
might be found. His friend, knowing his proneness to 
experience the symptoms of every disease he happened to 
read about, purposely misinformed him by giving him to 
understand that it was located on the left side of the lower 
abdomen. As usual, he began to watch for symptoms; and, 
as usual, he was soon rewarded by feeling a decided un¬ 
easiness in the locality named. In less than a week he felt 
compelled to appeal to a specialist for relief—which was 
instantly afforded, both as to his mind and his body, by 
being informed that he had selected the wrong locality 
for a good case of appendicitis. Nevertheless, it required 
the application of hot fomentations to relieve the inflam¬ 
mation that had actually been induced in the suggested 
location. It is needless to say that if he had been correctly 
informed by his friend, the surgeon would not have been 
defrauded of a genuine case. 

Again, appendicitis is such a formidable proposition, so 
distressing while it lasts, and its cure fraught with such 
danger to life, that it naturally excites the utmost dread 
in the minds of those who are familiar with the current 


46 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


literature on the subject. It would, therefore, constitute 
an exception to all known diseases if it failed to be 
attended with the usual results due to morbid suggestibil¬ 
ity. The class thus afflicted, after reading up on the sub¬ 
ject, begin by being very careful not to swallow any more 
fruit seeds; and if one accidentally slips down, they 
immediately begin to concentrate their minds upon their 
insides. The slightest symptom of uneasiness in the proper 
locality is magnified a thousand fold, vigilance is redoubled 
and intensified, and the consequent pain and inflammation 
is induced. The result is an operation, revealing a case of 
appendicitis minus a tangible cause. The expected seed, 
or other irritant, is not in evidence. 

Another exciting cause of morbid suggestibility on thi* 
subject is the mystery with which science—or the want of 
it—has invested the vermiform appendix. Scientists tell 
us that it is the vestigial remains of some organ that is no 
longer useful, whatever it may have been to our remote 
ancestors. This may be true; but the idea seems analogous 
to other assertions of science which are obviously made to 
conceal ignorance. Thus, scientists are prone to deny the 
existence of all occult things that they can not explain, as 
in psychic phenomena. But the vermiform appendix is a 
tangible reality, the existence of which cannot be denied; 
and inasmuch as they are ignorant of its uses, they declare 
it to be useless. In other words, according to the theory 
of science, nature made a mistake in creating it—a mistake 
all of the more flagrant and inexcusable in that this 
“functionless organ” (Gray) was placed, not where it 
would do the most good, but where it is a constant menace 
to life. 


IMAGINATION 


47 


If nature were in the habit of making mechanical mis¬ 
takes in the construction of vital organs, the appendix 
veriformis might be charged up to that source; but, as no 
other organ has been found to be functionless, it must be 
presumed that God is wiser than man—wiser, if possible, 
than the scientists who can find no other than professional 
uses for the vermiform appendix—and that in the fullness 
of time that organ will be able to find a valid excuse for 
existing. In the meantime it will continue to be constantly 
enhancing in value as a source of revenue for surgeons, so 
long, at least, as the public remains in ignorance of the 
potency of suggestions adverse to health. 

It is obvious that the remarks made in regard to cholera 
and appendicitis apply with equal force and pertinency to 
hundreds of other prevailing diseases, as well as to those 
diseases of the digestive organs mentioned in preceding 
chapters. The lesson is obvious, and it applies to all alike. 
It is that— 

Any disease that can he induced hy suggestion can he 
avoided either hy a counter suggestion of hy ignoring the 
adverse suggestion. 

Liniment—Rheumatism—Mind 

Dr. Charles F. Winbigler in “Suggestion”* 
tells how John St. John Long prepared a “wonderful lini¬ 
ment” for rheumatism. Many remarkable cures were made. 
The reputation of this liniment spread far and wide. The 
British Government bought the recipe for a large amount 
of money and intended to give it to the public, so that the 
chronic rheumatic sufferers might be cured. It was sub- 

*The American Library Association Publishers, New York 
City. 



48 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


sequently analyzed and found to be turpentine and the 
white of an egg. The power was gone. The liniment’s 
efficacy had evaporated. This would be true also of many 
medicines, and many prescriptions of doctors, if the real 
ingredients were known. Hence, Latin prescriptions are 
used, and the elements of the mental life are permitted to 
do the curing, whilst the medicine gets the credit. The 
pure food law, in its application to medicines, will diminish 
their sales and efficacy many per cent. Is it any wonder 
that the quacks and fakirs who have been playing on the 
credulity of many people are raising a great protest against 
this law? For instance, we know of a quack preparation, 
that has centers of distribution in many large cities, for 
which a large price is charged, a remedy for women ex¬ 
clusively. It consists of a species of massage and exercise 
and some ointments. If the massage and exercise were 
taken, without the use of the drugs, the virtue would be 
segregated from the business and the effects would be just 
as beneficial. It has been an awful blow to the fakirs to 
have to put on their quack preparations the names of the 
ingredients. The truth of the matter is that the passive 
condition of mind and the expectant results, which are 
mental conditions, produce a large number of cures. This 
passive condition is very necessary to get the best results 
from suggestion in the hands of the practitioner. 


There Is a Mental Element in Disease 


That it is necessary to understand the mental 
element in disease Dr. Clouston may be quoted as 
follows: 

The nervous and mental element in disease is a uni¬ 
versal and constant fact, but it prevails in different cases 
to a different extent. I could have related remarkable 
cases to you from my own experience, and out of the books, 
of functional disease being brought on and being cured 
by mental impressions only, of functions being suspended 
and altered from the same cause—nay, of actual organic 
lesions being directly caused and cured by mental impres¬ 
sions; as when blisters are caused by suggestion during 
hypnotic conditions. Constipation has been cured by doses 
of medicine containing no laxative, but with dogmatic 
assurances that a stool will follow in an hour. Warts have 
been ‘charmed’ away; scurvy among sailors has been cured 
by the prospect of a naval fight; gouty swellings have dis¬ 
appeared when “Mad dog” or “Fire” was cried out sud¬ 
denly to the sufferers. 


Psychologists and Doctors Agree 

So we see that on every hand we can marshal 
the medical authorities to corroborate the psy¬ 
chologists 9 contention that the mind does have 
power over the body. 

Dr. William Sadler, the famous physician, 
author and lecturer, says: 


49 


50 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


There is little doubt that nine-tenths of all the ordi¬ 
nary diseases of the body originate in the mind, and it is 
worry that produces the . soil from which these infant dis¬ 
eases spring. The seeds of mental disease and physical 
affliction may fall upon us thick and fast, but if they fail 
to find the soil of worry and depression in which to 
develop and grow, we are not likely to be seriously affected 
by their presence. 

A lady saw a heavy dish fall on her child’s hand, cut¬ 
ting off three of the fingers. She felt great pain in her 
hand, and on examination the corresponding three were 
swollen and inflamed. In twenty-four hours incisions were 
made and pus evacuated.* 

Hr. Diaz, in the “Medical and Surgical Jour¬ 
nal,” had a lady patient whose lips and mouth 
were suddenly enormously swollen from seeing a 
young child pass a sharp knife between its lips. 
Again Hr. Clouston, he says: 

It seems, indeed, as if certain persons who are pre¬ 
disposed to special diseases have, as their great protective 
and prophylactic against them, a sound and well-working 
mind and brain cortex. When well in mind, they are 
sound in body. When disturbed in mind, they fall victims 
to their diathesis. I have no doubt myself that this is 
the strongest of all the forces from within that preserve 
health and protect from disease. 

The following story was told to me by a veteran: 

During the Civil War a husky young soldier fell sick— 
so sick that he kept his tent, complaining and suffering 


De Fleury, Medicine and Mind, p. 9. 



IMAGINATION 


51 


until some of his comrades became tired of his “belly¬ 
aching.” 

The corporal, although he had no authority to do so, 
spoke to a couple of his comrades: “I believe we can end 
this sickness; if not, well make a desperate attempt.” So 
the three comrades went to the tent of the sick man and 
told him if he was going to be sick that they would have 
to take him to the hospital. Instantly he protested, but 
the boys insisted that he was so sick he could no longer 
remain there so they brought a stretcher to remove him 
to the hospital. Their plan was to carry him a block or 
two and dump him into a puddle of water to see what 
effect this would have upon his complaining. 

He refused to go when the boys laid hands upon him 
to take him by force, and fought so strenuously that his 
three comrades could not hold him. Eealizing the situa¬ 
tion, they said, “Well, a fellow who is as strong as you are 
doesn’t have to go to a hospital, anyhow.” 

The soldier was never sick again. The next morning 
he was up, answered roll call, went about the daily duties 
of a soldier as normally as though he had never had a 
siege of “sickness.” 

The stretcher-mud-puddle changed the current of his 
thinking and, presto, he was well! 

Why We Have Been on the Wrong Track 

The reason why our thoughts are not always in 
the safety notch has well been expressed in Ideal 
Suggestion through Mental Photography * by 
Henry Wood: 


52 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Thought is not now under perfect control because of 
past bad thinking habits. While to some extent thought- 
pictures unbidden, and even unwelcome, may thrust them¬ 
selves before the mind’s eye, we need not sit still and pas¬ 
sively gaze upon them. If we have been drifting, we must 
grasp the helm, man the oars and drift no longer. If 
positive and wholesome occupants take up their abode in 
the mental chambers, those of unwholesome quality will 
vacate. Every cherished ideal adds a tinge of its own hue 
and quality. There is no more of the element of chance in 
the outcome than in the solution of a mathematical prob¬ 
lem. 

High, healthful, pure thinking can be encouraged, pro¬ 
moted and strengthened. Its current can be turned upon 
grand ideals until it forms a habit and wears a channel. 
By means of such discipline the mental horizon can be 
flooded with the sunshine of beauty, wholeness and har¬ 
mony. To inaugurate pure and lofty thinking may at first 
seem difficult, even almost mechanical, but perseverance 
will at length render it easy, then pleasant, and finally 
delightful. 

The soul’s real world is that which it has built of its 
thoughts, mental states and imaginations. Our divine heri¬ 
tage of creative energy gives us the power to invoke and 
uprear a mental structure either symmetrical or deformed. 
If we will, we can turn our backs upon the lower and 
sensuous plane, and lift ourselves into the realm of the 
spiritual and Real, and there “gain a residence.” The 

*Lathrop, Lee & Shepherd, Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



IMAGINATION 


53 


assumption of states of expectancy and receptivity will 
attract spiritual sunshine, and it will flow in as naturally 
as air inclines to a vacuum. 

We must refuse mental standing-room to discord, and 
by right thinking call into existence a wholesome and 
inspiring environment. Think no evil, and have eyes only 
for the good. Optimism is of God, and it stimulates and 
attracts its possessor along the upward road towards the 
ideal and the perfect. Pessimism creates and multiplies 
unwholesome conditions, and galvanizes them into appar¬ 
ent life. 

Not only are thought-exercises, usually classed as sinful, 
to be displaced, but concepts of disorder, deformity and 
mortality should also be barred out. The mental photog¬ 
raphy of crime, evil and disease presented in bold head¬ 
lines by the sensational press should receive a discrim¬ 
inating and righteous condemnation. 

Psychological investigation has resulted in the 
discovery of the psychical life and its power over 
the body in recovering it from sickness and in¬ 
firmity and in keeping one’s self in good physical 
and mental condition. .The day of belief in the 
healing power of drugs is past, since it is a well 
established fact that all cures are effected by the 
use of the vital energies of the body, and by 
directing them intelligently, the beneficial result 
is obtained. 


54 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Some Strong Statements 

Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. R. S., late physician 
to Queen Victoria, said: 

Some patients get well with the aid of medicine; some 
without it and still more in spite of it. 

Prof. Alonzo Clark, of the New York College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, said: 

Every dose of medicine dinimishes the patient’s vitality. 

Prof. Barker, of the New York Medical College, 
said: 

The drugs that are administered for scarlet fever kill 
far more patients than the disease does. 

John Mason Good, M. D., F. R. S., said: 

The effects of medicine upon the human system, are, in 
the highest degree uncertain, except, indeed, that they 
have destroyed more lives than war, famine and pestilence 
combined.” 


Medicine and Psychology 

Sir S. Wilks remarks: 

The doctor soon finds that in treating his patient the 
practice of medicine is not only one of physic hut of psy¬ 
chology; and that the effect of his drugs depends as much 
upon the constitution of the patient’s mind as on that of 
his body. 

Dr. Shoemaker, of Philadelphia, says :* 

Psycho-therapism plays a most important part in the 


'Dr. Shoemaker, Therapeutics, p. 113. 



IMAGINATION 


55 


ordinary every-day practice of medicine. The influence of 
the mind upon the bodily functions is so great that every 
experienced intelligent physician is glad to enlist so potent 
an auxiliary. 

Well has Goethe said: 

It is astonishing what power our mind has over our 
body. Let the mind therefore always be the master. 

A book by Dr. Cathell on the reputation and 
success of a physician insists in nearly every one 
of 300 pages on the mental factor in the cures 
effected. 

J. H. Sealy in 1837 writes: 

I shall now consider the mind as a source of cure and 
as an agent equally potent and as frequently used for 
the removal of corporeal malady, as I have shown it to be 
active in its production. 

Strengthen Mental Energy to Cure Disease 

Again Dr. Clouston says: 

If mind and brain so powerfully affect the conditions 
of disease, one naturally turns to them in looking for 
means of cure. And beyond all question we can often get 
effectual help there. Half the diseases that kill, as I have 
already said, do so because there is not sufficient power 
in the organism to resist them. The physiological com¬ 
monly passes into the pathological, because the nerve 
energy is below par. To check many diseased conditions 
we cannot employ better therapeutics than to stimulate 
the cortex and strengthen the mental energy. To this end 
the first thing a good doctor does is to inspire confidence 


56 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


in his patient. What is this hut a bit of psycho-therapeu¬ 
tics ? And it is an all-important one in many cases. So to 
condition the patient that his brain and mind are kept up 
to the very highest mark attainable, to remove irritations 
(mental and nervous), and to distract attention from a 
lowering to a cheerful view of the whole situation, may 
make all the difference between life and death in many a 
case. Hope and a calm cheerfulness are often the best 
general aids to healthy metabolism. We know that a joyful 
emotion will at once fill the cortical capillaries. It is a 
true cerebral stimulant. Aided by medicinal cortical tonics 
and stimulants, like strychnine, quinine, the mineral acids, 
etc., mental stimulation is an undeniable adjuvant to the 
local treatment of disease, and is used largely by the most 
successful physicians.” 


Lower Animals and Mind 

We can see this great influence of the mind upon 
the bodily functions and facial lineaments, if we 
compare the faces and bodies of wild and domes¬ 
ticated animals. See the expression on the face 
of the great timber wolf of the North. At once 
you recognize that he has waged many a fierce and 
bloody battle you do not have to see the scars 
upon his body to tell you this. It is the expression 
of his countenance. His very look is bold and 
daring. Even the face of the coyote reveals traits 
of his strange character. You cannot mistake 
them. They are plainly written. 

Now contrast with these the face of the Jersey 
cow. Look at her as she peacefully chews her 
cud—what a contented, sweet face—peace of mind 
is revealed there. Why the difference? Simply 
that her environment and the treatment given her 
have created a different frame of mind. Her mind 
and her thoughts have wrought the physical 
change. “That wonderful sculptor, nature, has 
molded the countenance with so true a chisel that 
the habitual frame of mind of the cow and her 
progenitors is there told in unmistakable elo¬ 
quence. ’ 9 


57 


58 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


For generation after generation she has been 
protected—housed from the blasts of the northern 
winds that chill, well groomed, petted, protected 
from the inclemency of the weather and fed with¬ 
out the necessity of any effort on her part to 
forage for existence. 

She has not had to grow the bristling horn for 
protection. This horn which hundreds of years 
before had been grown by her forebears to pro¬ 
tect them from the enemy that sought their death 
is so seldom used now that it has fallen into a state 
of partial atrophy. 

Healing Is in the Body 

Hr. J. M. Bruce says: 

We are compelled to acknowledge a power of natural 
recovery inherent in the body; and a similar statement 
has been made by the writers on the principle of medicine 
in all ages. 

Hr. John Hunter says: 

As the state of mind is capable of producing a disease 
another state of it may effect a cure. 

Sir Thomas G. Stewart has said: 

In heart disease, the most important element is rest. 
Second in importance is, perhaps the element of hope. 
Many cures have been wrought by Charcot, Bernheim, 
Moll, Forel, Tuckey, Bramwell and others. They did not 
teach heresy in order to effect these cures, but used scien- 


IMAGINATION 


59 


tific principles, which have been discovered, and which are 
in perfect harmony with all that is true and real. They 
utilized the great principle of suggestion to cure disease, 
to change abnormal conditions, to modify mental processes, 
to bring relief to the afflicted and to the ailing. 

Nearly all forms of psychic healing create a 
new mental atmosphere and condition in the pa¬ 
tient. Fear is replaced by confidence, courage, 
fearlessness, hope, and the physical results follow. 

Illustrations 

The power of mind over the body has well been 
illustrated by General Grant in his Memoirs: 

The night before General Lee’s surrender, General 
Grant was suffering so acutely from a headache that he 
could not sleep. It was a splitting headache and, no won¬ 
der, with the gallant Lee to contend with. He spent , the 
night trying vainly to alleviate the pain; bathing his feet 
in hot water and mustard and putting hot mustard plasters 
on his wrists and on the back part of his neck. When the 
officer bearing General Lee’s letter reached him, he writes: 
“I was still suffering from the sick headache, but the in¬ 
stant I saw the contents of the note, I was cured.” 

It is related that when Benvenuto Celini was about to 
cast his famous statue of Perseus, now in the Loggia dei 
Lanzi at Florence, he was taken with a sudden fever and 
forced to go home to bed. In the midst of his suffering, 
one of his workmen rushed in to say: “0, Benvenuto, your 
statue is spoiled, and there is no hope whatever of saving 
it.” Dressing hastily, he rushed to his furnace and found 


60 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


his metal “caked.” Ordering dry oak wood brought in, he 
fired the furnace fiercely, working in a rain that was fall¬ 
ing, stirred the channels and saved his metal. He continues 
the story thus: “After all was over, I turned to a plate 
of salad on a bench there and ate with a hearty appetite, 
and drank together with the whole crew. Afterward I 
retired to my bed, healthy and happy, for it was now two 
hours before morning, and slept as sweetly as though I 
had never felt a touch of illness.” His overpowering idea 
of saving his statue drove away the physical condition and 
left him well. 

An Edinburgh physician records in his auto¬ 
biography that some of the most remarkable cures 
in his life-long service were effected by bread 
pills. 

In the British Foreign Medical Review is re¬ 
corded a case by a naval surgeon, as follows: 

A very intelligent officer had suffered for years from 
violent attacks of cramps in the stomach. These attacks 
came on frequently and subnitrate of bismuth had been 
used with good results, but, notwithstanding that the dose 
was increased to the largest extent that its poisonous qual¬ 
ities would justify, it lost its effect. He was then told that 
on the next week he would be put under the effect of a 
medicine which was generally believed to be almost infalli¬ 
ble but which was rarely used because of its dangerous 
quality, but that notwithstanding these, ft would be tried, 
provided he gave his consent. This he did willingly. Ac¬ 
cordingly, on the first attack after this, a powder contain¬ 
ing four grains was administered every seven minutes, 


IMAGINATION 


61 


while the greatest anxiety was expressed (within the hear¬ 
ing of the ptaient) lest too much should be given. The 
fourth dose caused an entire cessation of pain. Half 
drachm doses of bismuth had never produced the same 
relief in three hours. Four times this remedy was used 
afterward with the same efficacious results. The curative 
powder was nothing but ship-biscuit, ground very fine. 
Such a special incident may be accounted for by the un¬ 
usual stimulus of mental action under the thought of the 
strong drug being administered. 

During the naval fight off Santiago, while the 
Oregon was pushing after the Cristobal Colon, 
under forced draught, the stokers were nearly 
overcome by their great labor and the tremendous 
heat of the hold. As yet she had not partaken in 
the fight. The chief engineer, noting the condition 
of his men, signaled up to Captain Clark, 1 ‘ Give 
them a gun.” The gun was given—and exhaus¬ 
tion passed away in the excitement of the belief 
that the battle had begun. 

Keeping Young Also a Matter of Mind 

Youth, charm, beauty is a matter of the mind. 
We never have a campaign without many people 
becoming ten to twenty years younger during the 
week or two of our campaign. Many become 
charming and beautiful overnight. 


62 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In Seattle there was a woman whose body for 
forty-two years had been racked with pain. The 
doctors had been unable to give her any relief. 
Before the healing class was over everyone in the 
great healing class of one hundred and fifty could 
recognize the instant change which had come into 
the woman’s features. Any one who has been a 
sufferer for forty-two years would, of course, 
show the lines which Father Time had drawn upon 
his or her countenance. 

Remove the pain and Father Time will have to 
have a merry chase to keep drawing'lines that will 
stay there. 

Pain, sorrow, grief, disappointment, belief in 
ill luck, fate, each or all would hustle up old 
Father Time, keep him running on high, drawing 
lines a little deeper on the countenance of youth. 

Change your mind, get rid of ill-health, grief, 
sorrow, belief in misfortune, fate, ill-luck, and old 
Father Time’s bus wagon will run out of gas, lose 
its spark, break a crankshaft and give out before 
he can make another crow’s foot on the face of 
youth. 

You are Youth! You are beauty! You are 
Charm! So was this woman in Seattle. Forty- 


IMAGINATION 


63 


two years of pain had started “crow’s feet” on 
the countenance of this most beautiful woman. 

She was healed during the healing class. Over¬ 
night an instant change came. Her body free 
from pain, the mind was free to change her fea¬ 
tures. As she went down the street the next day 
her friends accosted her everywhere with such 
remarks as, “Why, my dear, you are beautiful,” 
“What has come into your life?” “What a change 
has come over you,” “You are charming,” “Why, 
my dear, how beautiful; what has done it ? ” 

What did it ? Thought—her mind. She had been 
healed by mind which had been helped by some of 
our methods of healing. The same thing—mind 
—which heals the body, has the power to change 
the features. 

Think right and keep young. 


STIG-MATISTS 


There is hardly a limit to the power of mind. 
It can kill as well as cure. 

A nurse injected ten drops of a solution of com¬ 
mon salt and water under the name of morphine. 
Thinking this was an opiate, the patient went 
sound asleep. 

Suggestion can make one immune from or sub¬ 
ject to infectious diseases. It can relieve or pro¬ 
duce pain. It can produce subcutaneous hemor¬ 
rhages, as in the case of the Stigmatists. 

The Stigmatists were most devout of Roman 
Catholics. They often got what they asked for 
because they took the proper course to secure it— 
a continued focusing of the mind upon the thing 
desired. Their ambition was to emulate their 
Savior as nearly as possible in His living and suf¬ 
ferings. They thought they could best emulate His 
living by enduring His sufferings, and to be sure 
that they were living like Christ, they desired to 
have outward evidences to corroborate their inter¬ 
nal wish. 

If they were to be like Christ, they were willing 
to suffer as He. Desiring to show scars as evi- 


64 


STIGMATISTS 


65 


dence of suffering, they set about thinking of His 
anguish on the cross. They mentally pictured His 
wounds in the hands and feet and side where He 
had been pierced. They believed that these marks 
would come. They meditated day and night, they 
concentrated, they visualized for these outward 
evidences of their communion with Christ. They 
really believed the marks would come. 

They stimulated their faith by religious com- 
munings, looking on the crucifix intently and si¬ 
lently while they tried to impress upon their 
bodies the great passion which possessed their 
souls. 

The conscious mind was quiescent, the spirit of ecstasy 
in prayer, meditation and watching for the scars to appear 
and the exercise of faith that they would be produced, 
eventually secured results. 

In order to be as nearly like Him as possible 
they did everything they thought Christ would do. 
They obeyed, as far as they could interpret, the 
teachings of the Great Master, His laws and man¬ 
dates, His admonitions and counsel. All He com¬ 
manded them to do, they tried to do; especially 
did they, day and night, ponder His suffering. It 
was not a little flitting bit of concentration or 
visualization; they kept their minds steadfast to 


66 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the one end of revealing the sufferings of Christ 
in their bodies.* 

What they really did to produce these scars on 
their bodies was to hold a picture or thought in 
their minds until it was involuntarily taken up by 
the subconscious mind. (Another way of sugges¬ 
tion.) 

Their thoughts were impressed upon the living 
tissues in their bodies. The cells finally responded 
and built into their hands and feet and sides marks 
identical with those of Christ. 

It is another great evidence of what can be done 
by mind. Man gets that which he thinks of the 
most, whether this be by virtue of a conscious or 
an unconscious condition. So, provided the patient 
and practitioner adjust themselves to the natural 
laws of mental healing, the power of mind to heal 
is a self-evident fact. 

Indeed, the most remarkable instances of skin 
changes through the mind are the stigmata (which 
are mentioned above). This is of course caused 
by an interference with circulation; but we class 


# That it is the state of mind long continued which brings about 
an effect for success, health or happiness has been thoroughly- 
discussed in “The Hidden Power of Thought,” 25c, by the author. 



STIGMATISTS 


67 


them with skin changes, as they are evidenced 
there. The first historic instance is that of St. 
Francis of Assisi on September 15, 1224; and the 
facts appear to be vonched for by reliable 
biographers. 

The profound influence of the mental state over 
the trophic nerves is illustrated by the many au¬ 
thentic cases of religious fanatics who have long 
gazed on the crucifix at some renowned shrine, 
and as a result, actual ulcers have appeared on the 
hands or feet at the very points pierced by the 
nails upon the crucifixion emblem. 

He meditated so long upon the Crucifixion that 
he suffered severe pain in his hands and feet, 
succeeded by inflammation that terminated in 
ulceration. 

Since then there are about ninety more or less 
authenticated cases, eighteen being males and sev¬ 
enty-two females. 

Louise Lateau is a comparatively recent 
instance. 

She bled profusely in her hands and feet, al¬ 
though on examination of the skin with a strong 
lens, no scratch whatever could be found. The 
papillae of the skin, however, were red and 
swollen. 


68 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Further examples might be given, but they would teach 
nothing more concerning the causes and effects of motor 
suggestion. Anyone who desires picturesque illustrations 
of its laws, should turn to a remarkable work by Duchatel 
and Warcollier, entitled Les miracles de la volonte.* From 
the scientific point of view, the writers’ methods of exposi¬ 
tion are not invariably above reproach. Nevertheless, 
Boirac, a man of science and philosopher of established 
reputation, has thought fit, with good reason to contribute 
a preface. For, in spite of dubious theories and hasty 
conclusions, the book displays considerable learning and 
has indisputable evidential value. It contains abundant 
records, derived from the writings of distinguished ob¬ 
servers of our own day and of earlier days. It is a store¬ 
house and we need merely open the door. Phenomena of 
this character, reported as isolated incidents, always have 
the aspect of anomalous freaks. We advance a step by 
bringing them together in a collection. 

Let us first consider the cases of dermographism, in 
which an image existing in the subject’s mind becomes 
outlined on the skin. The authors make a passing reference 
to the witches of the middle ages upon whose backs, it is 
asserted, the word ‘Satan’ was inscribed. They pass to a 
contemporary and precise report quoted from Charles 
Richet. A mother is watching her child at play. Acci¬ 
dentally the child unfastens the catch suspending a heavy 
sliding door in front of the fireplace, and is in danger of 
being guillotined. The mother’s heart leaps to her mouth, 
and then, in a moment, there forms round her neck—the 
threatened part of her child—a raised erythematous circle, 


# Durville, Paris. 



STIGMATISTS 


69 


a weal which endures for several hours. Here we have a 
striking instance of the power of emotion. Another case 
is that of a little girl upon whose skin appears the answer 
to the sum she is trying to do. In this instance the image 
which gave rise to the suggestion was subconscious. 

From dermographism we pass to stigmatization, the 
latter being merely a variety of the former. Stigmata 
appear on the skin of certain mystically inclined persons, 
appear in the places where Christ was wounded. These 
phenomena can be reproduced experimentally. As regards 
spontaneous stigmatization, we are not solely dependent 
on the account of semi-legendary figures in remote an¬ 
tiquity; accurate observations have been made upon mod¬ 
ern stigmatists, like Louise Lateau and Catherine Em¬ 
merich, with sphygmographic tracings and other precise 
details. In the case of Catherine Emmerich, the circula¬ 
tion was directly controlled by autosuggestion, the blood 
being distributed as it would have been distributed in an 
actual crucifixion. 

Next, in the world of Islam, we read of the ordeal by 
fire, of the devotee whose hand is not burned by the hot 
iron; and we read of the ordeal by sword, which will not 
draw blood. The authors give a number of instances in 
which obstinate maladies were cured by spontaneous auto¬ 
suggestion, the outcome of some novel and striking method 
of treatment. Of exceptional interest is a quotation from 
Cabanes, professor at the university of Liege. This dates 
from 1912. 


Hypnotism and Physiological Changes 

Much the same result can be produced on people 
by suggestion in hypnotism. 

Some remarks of Professor Barrett’s on the 
subject are worth reproducing here. He says:* 

It is not so well known, but it is nevertheless the fact, 
that utterly startling physiological changes can be pro¬ 
duced in a hypnotized subject merely by conscious or un¬ 
conscious mental suggestion. Thus, a red scar or a pain¬ 
ful burn, or even a figure of a definite shape, such as a 
cross or an initial, can be caused to appear on the body of 
the entranced subject solely through suggesting the idea. 
By creating some local disturbance of the blood-vessels in 
the skin, the unconscious self has done what it would be 
impossible for the conscious self to perform. And so in 
the well-attested cases of stignic + a where a close resem¬ 
blance to the wounds on the body of the crucified Saviour 
appears on the body of the ecstatic. This is a case of 
unconscious self-suggestion, arising from the intent and 
adoring gaze of the ecstatic upon the bleeding figure on the 
crucifix. With the abeyance of the conscious self, the hid¬ 
den powers emerge, whilst the trance and mimicry of the 
wounds are strictly parallel to the experimental cases pre¬ 
viously referred to. May not some of the well-known cases 
of mimicry in animal life originate, like the stigmata, in 
a reflex action, as physiologists would say, below the level 
of consciousness, created by a predominant impression 

*Prof. Barrett (Prof. Physics, T.C.D.), Humwiitarim, 1895 . 

70 



STIGMATISTS 


71 


analogous to those producing the stigmata? That is to 
say, to reflex actions excited by an unconscious suggestion 
derived from the environment; in other words, the dynam¬ 
ic, externalizing power of thought, if the action of that 
which is unconscious may be called thought. We must, 
in fact, extend our idea of “thought” to something much 
wider than intellection or ideation—these are special acts 
of thought, for the directing functional activity of our sub¬ 
liminal life has also the attributes of thought, though we 
may be unconscious of its thinking. 

The following from an Eastern journal illus¬ 
trates another phase of the subject: 

Saltpetriere, the hospital for nervous diseases, made 
famous by the investigations of Dr. Charcot, has an inter¬ 
esting case of religious mania. The patient, who is a 
woman of about forty years of age, entertains the belief 
that she is crucified, and this delusion has caused a con¬ 
traction of the muscles of the feet of such a nature that 
she can walk only on tip-toe. The patient, moreover, is 
subject occasionally to the still more extraordinary mani¬ 
festation—that of “stigmata.” These “stigmata” have been 
observed beyond all question on the woman at the Salt¬ 
petriere. Their appearance on her body coincides with the 
return of the most solemn religious anniversaries. These 
“stigmata” are so visible that it has been possible to photo¬ 
graph them. The doctors of the Saltpetriere in order to 
assure themselves that these manifestations were not the 
result of trickery, contrived a sort of shade having glass 
front and metal sides, and capable of being hermetically 
attached to the body by means of India rubber fixings. 
These shades were placed in position a considerable time 


72 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


before the dates at which the stigmata are wont to appear. 
When they were affixed there were no marks whatever on 
the patient’s body, but at the expected period the “stig¬ 
mata” were visible as usual through the glass. 

Charles Fillmore tells of a lady who watched 
her little daughter pass through a heavy iron gate. 
The gate swung shut and the mother imagined 
that it caught and crushed the little one’s fingers. 
But the child had withdrawn her fingers before 
the gate struck. The mother felt the pain in her 
own hand, and the next day she found a dark 
streak across her fingers where she imagined the 
child’s were crushed. 

In a certain secret society initiation, the candi¬ 
date was told that the word “Coward” was to be 
branded upon his back with a red-hot iron. A 
piece of ice was used instead, but the promised 
brand arose in blistered letters. 


Definition of Healing 

Healing means “to make whole’’ or “holy,” 
both of which words are derived from the same 
root. So healing must he distinguished from the 
usual palliative action of drugs. 

The term “healer” comes as a translation of 
the name Jesus, Hebrew, Yeshua, which in Latin 
becomes Salvator or “Saviour.” 

So healing, as opposed to curing, has little to 
do with symptoms but much with causes. It 
strikes deep into the root of things and means 
constructing or synthesizing, if it means any¬ 
thing. 

When the healer understands the real meaning 
of his calling, he begins to realize its high and 
broad nature—to make “whole” or “holy.” 

Medical Science has confined itself preeminently 
to a study of disease and not of health. Its atten¬ 
tion has chiefly been focused on the study of 
pathological conditions and very skillful diag¬ 
nosis has been developed; but on the curative side, 
it is confessedly weak. So we see that medical 
science, great as it is, has been one-sided in its 
developments. 


73 


74 - 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The healing power lies within the human body 
and the best that medicines, mustard plasters or 
prescriptions can do is to whip into action the 
latent, forceful, life-giving power within the 
individual. 

Elizabeth Severn, M. D., in “Psycho Therapy, 
Its Doctrine and Practice,” says: 

After having dosed and drugged, sweated, cut, tinkered 
and tampered with its many subjects, medical science still 
remains able at best to deal only with the symptoms of 
disease. 

Professor Clouston says: 

We talk and laugh and weep and blush and shiver and 
hunger and sweat and digest all through the brain cortex, 
and there is not one of the physiological acts but can be 
instantly arrested by a mental act. 

Abandons Drugs 

Professor Paul Dubois, M. D., upon resolving 
to eliminate drugs in his practice, began using a 
variety of physical means such as massage, water 
cure, etc., abandoning medicine more and more 
and recommending hygienic measures. Finally, 
however, he became so convinced of the superior 
value of treatment by persuasion and re-education 
that he dropped all other physical means entirely, 
considering them too slow in their action. He 
abandoned the use of electricity as something 


STIGMATISTS 


75 


worse than useless, resorting only to quiet, proper 
diet, rest, really letting nature do the work, with 
the aid of the mind . 

He inspires and encourages his patients to be¬ 
lieve that they can be cured. 

In fact, this is the biggest thing in all healing, 
whether medicine is administered or different 
methods of mental healing used. 

The greatest factor, as Dr. Du Bois has found 
and used, is to produce a hopeful, peaceful state 
of mind by arousing the will of the patient to stay 
by the treatment, and in this way he performs 
wonderful cures. Some subjects are cured by a 
single conversation, others in a few days, some 
require weeks, according to the degree of their 
impressionability and the type of disease involved. 

Man has always possessed divine recuperative 
forces, but they were latent and below the surface 
of consciousness. He is like a discordant musical 
instrument, containing splendid possibilities 
which are only waiting to respond in unison to 
active harmony. 

Let one receive an injury, as a bruise, the sen¬ 
sory nerve instantly sends a message to the brain, 
which in turn immediately stimulates the center 
of circulation, which sends out a message to the 


76 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


blood supply. The response follows in the con¬ 
gested area around the bruise, which is nature's 
method of cure, by building up injured tissues 
through the restorative power of the blood. 

Mental physiology has amply demonstrated that 
these messages, orders, or commands are con¬ 
stantly flashing throughout the body, and it is by 
means of this intercommunication that the auto¬ 
matic processes are maintained. 

Disease Cured by Nature 

Charles M. Barrows, in Suggestion Instead of 
Medicine, tells that: 

It was this scientific view, in distinction from common 
opinion, that Dr. Bernheim took when he wrote: “Diseases 
are cured, when they are cured, by their natural biological 
evolution. Ordinary therapeutical methods consist in put¬ 
ting the organism in a condition such that restitutio ad 
integrum may take place. We suppress pain, we modify 
function, we let the organ rest, we calm the fever, we 
retard the pulse, we induce sleep, we encourage secretion 
and excretion; and, by thus acting, we allow Nature, the 
healer, to accomplish her work.” 

We may be sure that this noted French expert of the 
great hospital at Nancy did not underrate his own pro¬ 
fession or credit to Nature more than her due. His mean¬ 
ing is unmistakable. The real healer is a native power 
within the patient. Drugs are only ancillary. The physi¬ 
cian is a servant who exercises his skill to clear the path 


STIGMATISTS 


77 


of Nature to her work. Having done his part, he leaves 
it to Nature to evolve health by means of biological changes 
that are always going on in the system. 

This recuperative action which physicians recognize is 
centralized under another name. It is well known that all 
living structure, animal or vegetable, possesses this in¬ 
stinctive power of self-recovery. It is a form of spontan¬ 
eous, plastic energy, which, acting through the proper 
neural channels, resists disease, tends to arrest its progress, 
repair the damage done and compensate the bodily losses 
sustained. This inherent tendency of the sick to get well 
is known to physicians as vis medicatrix nature. Common 
people say it is Nature; and, in reverent language, men 
name it spirit, or God. Dr. J. Mitchell Bruce, of Charing 
Cross Hospital, London, said recently while reviewing the 
progress of medicine: “We are now able to appreciate as 
never before the constructive factor which takes the forms 
of repair and convalescence. Just as the body possesses 
provisions for resisting the causes of disease, so it possesses 
provisions for arresting its beginnings . . . quite spontan¬ 
eously; that is, without the help of the surgeon or physi¬ 
cian.** Elsewhere in the same address he refers to this 
natural faculty as a “recuperative factor 3 * making “spon¬ 
taneous attempts at recovery.** 

Nature Her Own Diagnostician 

Some great medical authorities go much further 
and even believe that nature or the body has its 
own power of diagnosis. In regard to this, Villette 
H. White, in “Mental Healing,** says: 


78 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


It is even claimed by Dr. Abderhalden, an eminent 
German physiologist, that the body has the power of 
natural diagnosis, and that when disease impends, special 
antidotal ferments are formed and thrown into the circu¬ 
lation to counteract the threatening conditions. 

Dr. C. W. Saleeby, an English medical writer, says that 
the only curative drugs are those of the body’s own making. 
The extracts and serums prepared from the organs of 
healthy animals and administered to supply a lack in the 
corresponding organ of the human being, show how this 
idea is growing in medical circles. Extracts from the 
thyroid gland of a sheep, pepsin, pancreatin and adrenalin 
from other animals, and even white corpuscles developed 
from the blood of a horse, are administered, as being of 
physical origin and hence capable of meeting a physical 
need in man. 

While this may be the most advanced method of medica¬ 
tion today, the fact remains that it is not considered good 
practice to do anything for the body which it is able to do 
for itself. This evil is seen in the use of pepsin and pre¬ 
digested foods* which after a time cause the stomach to 
“lie down on the job.” 

Make Believe Surgical Operations 

Dr. Marden states that a great surgeon told him 
he had time and time again performed make 
believe surgical operations upon patients who had 
dwelt so long on the idea of diseases in certain 
organs that their fear had become an obsession 


STIGMATISTS 


79 


and had developed some of the symptoms of the 
disease. 

In this make believe operation, the surgeon goes 
through all the regular professional routine. The 
patient is put on the operating table and 
an anesthetic administered to complete the illu¬ 
sion. To demonstrate that an operation has taken 
place, the skin is sometimes scratched a little to 
give the semblance of an incision. A surgical 
bandage is put on the part, the patient kept in 
bed the usual time, at the expiration of which he 
is quite well again and perfectly normal. 

This surgeon says without exception all the 
patients he has treated in this way, regardless of 
the malady or operation, have been entirely cured 
of their obsession. Even in cases where the patient 
has had severe and persistent pain for many 
months, entire cures have been effected by these 
make believe operations. 

A wise surgeon he therefore is who never tells 
the patient of the deception he has practiced and 
why he did so. The patient wanted health and he 
got health. 

Very often our sickness is a matter of habit and 
our pains become subconscious conditions, mostly 
mental. The human race has been taught a long 


80 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


while to rely on drugs and surgery. This becomes 
a subconscious habit of belief. 

If people have been educated to think they must 
have operations, surely a mock operation is the 
best kind, if it effects a cure. The surgeon is 
certainly quite justifiable in his make believe body 
slashing. 

Another surgeon has told a friend of mine that 
he has performed many mock operations on hys¬ 
terical women. After efforts had failed to con¬ 
vince the women that their malignant growth was 
imaginary and that no operation was needed in 
order to make them well, he feigns to operate. 

If women think they must be cut open to be 
healed, by all means pretend to cut them. It is all 
in the mind, anyhow. 

Another case is of a woman who had four opera¬ 
tions for an internal tumor. The old trouble came 
back again. She was sure the only thing that would 
save her life was operation Number Five. Bemg 
unable to persuade the woman to the contrary, 
she got her operation—mock. She was placed 
upon the operating table and a little anesthetic 
administered to put her in a semi-conscious state, 
so that she could hear and feel but could not see. 
Nurses and surgeons moved about the room 


STIGMATISTS 


81 


quietly and gave their customary hurried orders 
to attendants to all intents as though they were 
working on a serious operation. They let ice water 
drip from a considerable height upon the affected 
part for a few minutes to give the patient the 
notion of being swathed in bandages, after which 
she was taken home in an ambulance and awoke to 
find two nurses in respectful attendance. She felt 
weak and languid. When asked if she could take 
a little tea she was finally able to sip a few mouth¬ 
fuls. After ten days of quiet rest in bed, her 
friends were allowed to see her and she gradu¬ 
ally recovered. No knife, no cutting, no operation, 
no tumor removed, but she had been sure that 
only an operation could save her, and she was 
saved. Glory Be, The Power of the Mind is some 
power. Even the mock surgical operations so 
testify. 

The same surgeon gives another corking illus^ 
tration. 


Larvated Suggestion 

A girl was affected by twitching and pulling of 
the head from one side to the other. It was caused, 
she was sure, by a string inside. She wanted this 
cord removed by an operation. Doctors had been 
unable to find the cord and tried to persuade her 
that an operation was not necessary, but she would 
have none of that. So, when the girl insisted there 
was only one way to be cured and that was by the 
knife, the wise surgeon announced to her in due 
time that an operation would be performed. Such 
news brought a joyful clapping of her hands, for 
she knew she would be healed. The make believe 
operation was carried out from A to “Izzard.” 
All the doctor did was to cut off some of her beau¬ 
tiful hair and make a slight skin scratch to prove 
that he had been working inside of her cranium. 
To make the evidence stronger, he took a catgut 
string from a violin, soaked it in water and held it 
up before the convalescing patient—this violin 
string he said he had taken from her head. That 
was all that was necessary. The twitching and 
pulling of her head stopped. She was healed by 
the power of mind, via a mock operation. 


82 


STIGMATISTS 


83 


As I am writing this, a physician tells me that 
people who insist upon having prescriptions writ¬ 
ten and filled in the customary manner at the 
corner drug store, get full satisfaction out of make 
believe pills. This has become such a common 
habit now, the doctor tells me, that drug stores 
carry these make believe pills all ready, nicely 
arranged, invitingly labeled, and more cures are 
effected by these quasi pills than by the real pills 
themselves. 

Hallelujah! Wise is the doctor who prescribes 
bread pills, and fortunate is the patient who has 
such a wise doc. 

The make believe surgical operation, as well as 
make believe pills, are based on the same principle, 
wholly mental, that frail humanity believes what it 
prefers to believe. The cure is effected by faith 
on the part of the patient in the efficacy of the 
remedy. It is the power of the mind, however, 
that actually does the work. 

The wonders of ‘ 4 Nature V’ therapeutics (or of 
the mental factor in medicine), Professor Potter, 
of Philadelphia, declares, 4 4 are worthy of a pro 
fessor’s chair.” 

Better Than Poison 

That the body possesses some power of resisting and 
recovering from the disturbing forces of disease has long 


84 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


been recognized, and represents what is often described as 
the vis medicatrix nature . 

Professor Bowen says: 

After poisoning their patients with drugs through 
many centuries, the doctors have at last come to know 
their business better; and now generally stand aside, so 
as to leave free course to the curative agencies of the un¬ 
conscious, which alone can restore the patient to perfect 
health. 

First, there is. the healing power of Nature. It is 
acknowledged by the medical profession that fully ten per 
cent of cases would get well if entirely left alone. Just 
call in Dr. Diet and Dr. Quiet and give Nature a chance. 
It is also acknowledged in nearly all diseases that good 
nursing is half the battle. Sir John Marshall, of London, 
said: “The vis medicatrix nature (the healing, the recu¬ 
perative power of Nature) is the agent to employ in the 
healing of an ulcer, in the union of a broken bone; the 
physician or surgeon only assists the natural processes of 
cure performed by the inherent conservative energy of the 
frame.” And Dr. John Forbes said, in like manner: “In 
a large proportion of cases, the disease is cured by Nature 
and not by the physicians.” 

A famous physician tells of a young lady who 
tottered into the Out Patient Department of a 
large London Hospital in great agony of mind, 
carrying a tin in one hand and a spoon in the 
other. The tin and spoon were brought along by 
the girPs mother as evidence that her daughter 

•Professor Bowen, Modern Philosophy, p. 349. 



STIGMATISTS 


85 


was dying from contraction of the gullet and she 
wished to show that not even a little jelly could be 
swallowed. 

The girl was reduced to a skeleton. Medicine 
had failed, but after using appropriate means to 
affect the mind indirectly, the patient, within a 
half hour, according to the physician, “was sit¬ 
ting in one of the wards eating a large plateful of 
boiled mutton, potatoes and turnips with ‘hospital 
pudding/ ” 


Imaginary Bondage 

Commenting upon the power of the mind to heal, 
Dr. Wm. S. Sadler gives the following authority 
with his customary medical punch:* 

And, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of 
infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and 
could in no wise lift np herself. And when Jesns saw her. 
He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou 
art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid H'is hands 
on her; and immediately she was made straight and 
glorified God. (Luke XVIII: 11-13.) Here was an un¬ 
fortunate sufferer who had been held in bondage by an 
imaginary spirit of infirmity for almost a score of years. 
The Master broke light into her darkened mind by an¬ 
nouncing that she was free from her infirmity. She had 

*The Physiology of Faith and Fear, by William S. Sadler, M. D. 
McClurg & Co., Publishers. 



86 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


never really been bound. She was bowed together as a 
result of her long worry and sorrow. So long had she 
assumed this physical attitude that her body had become 
permanently deformed—another illustration of a physical 
disorder resulting from purely mental causes. 

Thousands of suffering souls are held today by the 
chains of imaginary bondage. They have no real physical 
disease. Their ailment is in reality a spiritual infirmity. 
They might go free at any time, but they do not know it; 
they will not believe it. These prisoners of despair are 
held securely in their prisonhouse of doubt by force of 
habit. They are very much like the elephant in Central 
Park, New York City, which has stood in one spot for 
many years, shackled with heavy chains. He had never 
left his tracks except when he had been unfastened and 
led away by his keepers. One day it occurred to them to 
remove the fetters from his legs and see if he would leave 
his place. After the beast was free from his shackles, he 
steadfastly refused to move; even after he was allowed to 
become exceedingly hungry and when food was placed 
within a few inches of his reach he stood in his tracks 
swaying from side*to side and trumpeting loudly, but not 
a step did the huge beast take toward the food. 

The elephant was free, but he did not know it; there¬ 
fore, he stood there in his old place just as securely bound 
by the chains of his own mind as if the steel bands were 
about him as of old. And so it is with humanity; alto¬ 
gether too many of us are like unto the elephant. We are 
absolutely free today, but, not realizing or not believing 
the glorious fact—not having faith and courage enough to 
step out into our mental freedom and begin to enjoy our 


STIGMATISTS 


87 


spiritual liberty—like the elephant, we stand in the place 
of habit-bondage and bitterly mourn our terrible fate. We 
are not surprised when an elephant behaves in this way* 
but it ought to be a cause for great astonishment that 
intelligent men and women, sons and daughters of God, 
will allow themselves to be held down by fictitious bondage 
and bound down by a mere “spirit of infirmity.” 


Personality Does It 

A very successful physician friend of mine has 
told me confidentially that his strong personality 
has more to do with healing his patients than his 
medicine. 

Every believer in psycho-therapeutics knows 
that there is a psychical as well as a physical 
effect from the use of drugs. The psychical value 
is based on the expectation of their special action, 
and that which is in the physician’s mind may be 
subtly and powerfully carried over into the pa¬ 
tient’s mind. The physician’s personality, atti¬ 
tude and interest in the patient accomplishes 
vastly more than the drugs he prescribes or ad¬ 
ministers. If he is cheerful and hopeful, he gives 
potency to their action; if he is gloomy, pessimistic 
and hopeless he nullifies their effects. 

Thought and Bodily Chemicalization 

We have mentioned elsewhere in this series 
about Professor Gates’ wonderful discovery. I 
think too much emphasis cannot be placed upon 
what he has to say. J. D. 0. Powers, in comment¬ 
ing upon this, says: 


88 


STIGMATISTS 


89 


The National Department of Psychiatry has shown the 
causative character of our thinking in a long series of the 
most comprehensive and convincing experiments. Prof. 
Gates found, for instance, that any change in the mental 
state changed the chemical character of the perspiration. 
When treated with the same chemical reagent, the per¬ 
spiration of any angry man showed one color, that of a 
man in grief another, that of a man in remorse still an¬ 
other, and so on through a long list of emotions. Each 
mental state persistently exhibited its own peculiar chem¬ 
ical result through thousands of experiments. 

These experiments show clearly, as indicated by Prof. 
James’ statement, that each kind of thinking, by causing 
changes in glandular or visceral activity, produced differ¬ 
ent chemical substances which were being thrown out, at 
least in part, of the system by the perspiration. 

Tersely he gives us the results of these experiments on 
thinking and emotions: 

“Every emotion or thought of a false or disagreeable 
nature produces a poison in the blood or cell tissues; my 
experiments show that irascible, malevolent and depressing 
emotions and thoughts generate in the system injurious 
compounds.” He enumerates these chemical products, all 
poisonous, and concludes by saying: “Enough would be 
eliminated in one hour of intense hate, by a man of aver¬ 
age strength, to cause the death of perhaps four-score 
men, as these ptomaines are the deadliest poisons known 
to science" 

On the other hand, “All agreeable, happy thoughts and 
emotions generate chemical compounds of nutritious value 
which stimulate the cells to manufacture energy.” “If,” he 
continues, “mind activities create chemical and anatomical 


90 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


changes in the cells and tissues of the physical body, it 
follows that all physiological processes of health and dis¬ 
ease are psychological processes, and the only way to in¬ 
hibit, accelerate or change these processes is to resort to 
methods properly altering the psychological or mental 
processes; that is, the most effective way—the best way to 
change these physical processes is to change the thinking ” 

Anger, hate, greed, selfishness, lust, envy, grief, jeal¬ 
ousy, regret, disappointment, fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, 
despair, self-condemnation, all erroneous thoughts are dis¬ 
cordant in their nature; and every one of them throw out 
chemical compounds into the body which results in time 
in apoplexy, hardening of the arteries, rheumatism, paral¬ 
ysis, stomach troubles and various other diseases too 
numerous to mention. Love, faith, hope, peace, joy, laugh¬ 
ter, sunshine, inspiration, truth, harmony, peace, music, 
encouragement, optimism, courage, kindness, courtesy, sin¬ 
cerity, enthusiasm, confidence—all these build the body 
into strength and beauty. If you wish increasing health, 
make it a daily rule to control your Thought World. 

So our thinking makes our bodies. 

Diseases Curable by Mind 

We are giving the reader here a list of diseases, 
healed by mind, which we quote from chapter 5 
in “Force of Mind,” by Alfred T. Schofield, 
M. D.,* namely: 

Atheroma, dilated heart, Graves* disease, dyspepsia, 
jaundice, cirrohosis, chorea, cancer, pernicious anaemia, 


♦Funk & Wagnalls Co., Publishers, New York. 



STIGMATISTS 


91 


foetal deformities, alopecia, epilepsy, diabetes, urticaria, 
rachialgia, paralysis, boils, gastric diseases, retention, 
amenorrhoea, granular kidney, anasarca, hyperaesthesia, 
anaesthesia, paraesthesia, dysaesthesia, inflammations, 
oedema, goitre, exophthalmic goitre, headache, angina pec¬ 
toris, Addison’s disease, neuroses of the extremities, dis¬ 
eases of heart and circulation, apoplexy, asthma, dyspnoea, 
coughs, hiccoughs, haemorrhage, haemoptysis, flatulence, 
gastralgia, constipation, diarrhoea, indigestion, diseases of 
bladder, tumors, mania, fever, cholera, dysentery, scurvy, 
malarial fever, influenza, muscular inco-ordination, in¬ 
somnia, tinnitus aurium, fibroids, hysteria. 

This list conclusively shows that other diseases 
than nervous or functional are healed by the 
mind. 

Functional Diseases Can Be Cured by Mind 

There are over twenty medical authorities today 
who show that many organic, as well as functional 
diseases, are caused by mental and emotional con¬ 
ditions. 

Dr. Snow, Dr. Murchison and Sir W. H. Bennett 
of St. George’s Hospital, London, all agree that 
cancer of the liver, the breast, the uterus, are due 
to mental anxiety. 

Dr. Dubois of Germany exclaims that nervous¬ 
ness is a disease preeminently psychic, and a psy¬ 
chic disease needs psychic treatment. Then he 
asks this question: 


92 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Can we, by means of the mind, by our moral deport¬ 
ment, escape illness, prevent functional troubles, diminish 
or suppress those which already exist ? I boldly answer, yes. 

And hear this startling statement from Hr. 
Schofield: 

The power of mind over the body has limits, but 
they have never yet been ascertained. All one can do to 
cure himself, the forces he can set in action, are as yet 
unknown, but they are far greater than most people 
imagine. 

Hr. Winbigler gives ns another slant on the 
mind working in conjunction with nature when he 
says :* 

Get Out of the Way of Nature 

The physical form is a mass of material, highly organ¬ 
ized, and it has a tendency to disintegrate, except when 
it is animated by vital power it can be renewed. When 
life touches certain centers, there is a response and the 
supreme power of the mind brings all into harmony with 
itself. When interferences occur and discords arise, by 
accident or by administration of remedies, or changes in 
temperature, we find that the vital forces frequently rebel 
and pain sometimes results and dissolution may occur. 
Take, for instance, an overdose of certain drugs, sudden 
colds resulting from exposure, poisons, etc. The inter¬ 
ferences are the things to be watched, as they are the 
enemies of mind and body. The conditions resulting from 
mental causes can be changed by mental processes, as mind 

*Suggestion, by Winbigler. The American Library Assn., Pub¬ 
lishers. 



STIGrMATISTS 


93 


controls the vital functions of the body. Abnormal condi¬ 
tions therein can be modified and largely changed by the 
mind. The conscious will and the ideals of the conscious 
mind are able to change and control mental and physical 
adverse conditions. 

It is becoming more and more apparent that disease as 
to its origin is mainly mental. There are physicians who 
believe that disease may be traced to microbes and many 
other material objects and conditions. If microbes are the 
cause, why is not everybody sick? Comparatively few fall 
prey to these body scavengers. 

There are all kinds of bacteria in the body, and when 
the thinking is true, high, pure and healthful they do not 
hurt, but help us. When it is the reverse, physical depres¬ 
sions follow, and they hurt us and destroy us. There are 
diphtheria germs in everybody’s throat. Why do they not 
develop? Because the system is in a condition to resist 
them and keep them under. Yes, that is true, but why is 
it true? Because there is a difference between the occa¬ 
sion and the cause of disease. The latter we believe can 
be ultimately traced to a mental condition, whilst the 
former may be physical in its manifestation. 

This is seen now by many physicians and thoughtful 
people, so that the general attack on disease in the future 
will be psychical, especially so, on functional conditions. 
Drugs will be supplanted more and more, and mental and 
natural methods will be utilized, to the benefit of all con¬ 
cerned. 

We do not underrate the value of bacteriology, clima¬ 
tology, chemistry and other sciences in their helpfulness 
in the study of etiology, but we do want to emphasize the 


94 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


science of psychology as a primary aid in understanding 
the origin and cure of disease and physical and mental 
abnormal conditions. If the reader will now turn to the 
discussions of the subconscious mind in this work, many 
statements made under that and other sections will become 
plain. The subconscious mind is the true self. It is a 
storehouse of power, energy, wisdom, knowledge and help; 
it is the point of contact with the Infinite Mind, and also 
the channel through which all the power of that Mind may 
be brought into the human life. 

Man the Only Animal Diseased 

Authorities in natural history tell us that there 
is no disease among wild animals. They die either 
from accident, as the prey of the stronger, or from 
starvation. Disease is also unknown among in¬ 
sects. Parasites prey upon them. So-called vege¬ 
table diseases are but the result of the habit of 
the strong preying upon the weak. Dr. Holland 
beautifully expresses this: 

4 ‘ The sparrow preys upon the finch, 

The finch upon the fly; 

And that a rose may breathe its breath 
Something must die.” 

Henry Harrison Brown has well said: 

We have no record as to what extent disease preyed 
upon primitive man. Probably starvation, freezing, war 
and flood kept the race within bounds. It is a well-known 


STIGMATISTS 


95 


fact, however, that food supply determines increase of 
population. But, whatever the fact in regard to primitive 
man may be, this we know: disease has kept steady pace 
with civilization. New developments in social, intellectual 
life in arts and mechanics, cause new diseases. Bicycling, 
automobiling and high-speed railway trains have their ill 
results. The important fact underlying all this gives rise 
to the Divine Law of Cure, which is: Man survives under 
every condition. Where some individuals live healthfully 
and happily, others will die. 

Not only can mind heal diseases which man has 
made by his thinking and irregular civilized liv¬ 
ing, hut habits can also be cured by the same 
token—Mind. This is reserved, however, for a 
later discussion. 


















■ 


‘ 














































' 




















y 1 • 



























































, 
















PART II 


HOW THE MIND HEALS 


Power Within 


Not only, as the late Professor James said that 
the greatest discovery of a hundred years is the 
subconscious or sublimal consciousness, hut on 
every hand we hear it expressed from scientific 
men that: 

The most impressive discovery in recent years is that 
a dynamic and intelligent power resides within each 
individual. Its full significance is just coming to be 
realized. Science has revealed beyond the world of 
the senses and consciousness a wide and unknown 
realm of human energies and resources. 

This force within ourselves is manifested in 
every physical inharmony of the body. If we break 
a bone, this vital power within sets to work. If 
the bone is properly set, it knits together in such 
a fashion that one would never know he had a 
break. If it is not set, it begins to work anyhow, to 
adjust itself, doing the best it can to help heal the 
abnormal condition. If one receives into his body 


97 





98 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


something that does not agree with him, this vital 
force within tries to eject it. If a splinter is run 
into the hand, this life-giving energy, the power 
within, sets itself to work immediately to force the 
foreign substance out. 

This is all done by the direction of the sub¬ 
conscious mind, which immediately tries to adjust 
and correct all abnormal conditions. Wonders 
take place if we but get out of the way and let 
nature do its part. 

Within the classic walls of Harvard University, 
James Goodhart, in his lectures on common neuro¬ 
sis, tells us that “ there are many conditions in 
which the cure must come mainly from within, our 
function in chief being to call out this dormant 
power.” 

The scriptures refer to this vital force within as 

The Power “which worketh in us to will and to do 
of His good pleasure. ” 

“So Say We All of Us” 

We get this same idea expressed by various 
philosophers and scientific men, to wit: 

1. SCIENCE: Prof. Henri Bergson: “With slight 
effort we can release more life into the organism, and 
with increased effort we can release unlimited power.” 


POWER WITHIN 


99 


2. Henri Bergson, France: ‘‘Fix the attention upon 
the undivided flow of Inner life, we are not this vital 
current itself, but we are part of this inpouring life 
come to self-consciousness. ’ ’ 

3. SCIENCE: Prof. Wm. James: “Higher degrees 
of consciousness reach down and take hold of lower 
degrees of itself and lift it to its own level.” 

4. SCIENCE: Prof. Wm. James: “Under certain 
conditions there is an influx of a higher order of con¬ 
sciousness; something from above takes hold of the 
lower part of itself, quickening it with a new morality, 
often utterly recreating the outer man.” 

5. Prof. Wm. James: “When an idea is passed into 
the subconscious mind with Interest and Attention, 
and AN IMPETUS GIVEN TO IT BY CONCENTRA¬ 
TION, in that moment the subconscious mind springs 
upon that idea like a wild beast upon its prey and 
deep into subconscious research one idea connects with 
another. ’ ’ 

6. RELIGION: “Beholding the glory of the Lord 
(contemplating perfection) we all, reflecting as a 
mirror, are transformed into the same likeness.” 

7. JESUS: “Ftom within man the spirit of God 
flows forth like rivers of Living water. If any man 
willeth to do his will he will know of the teaching, 
whether it is of God or whether I speak of myself.” 
He knew the law with which he worked would yield 
the same result no matter who used it. 


100 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


From Mental Healing Made Easy, by Villette 
H. White, we find the following, which corrobo¬ 
rates the other authorities : 

One cannot say, “I will circulate my blood,” “ I will 
digest my food,” and accomplish anything, but never¬ 
theless it is possible to affect all these functions indirectly, 
through stimulating by the will the nerve centers con¬ 
trolling them. We can consciously send imperative mes¬ 
sages by way of these great nerve centers, which will be 
‘ obeyed and in time the whole body can be made subservient 
to the will. 

In learning to exercise this power over ourselves, 
we prove our kinship with God, of whom it has been 
said, “Law is the manifestation of His mind, force the 
movement of His will.” 

Great thinkers hold today that the only ultimate 
force is in the energy of the divine will, so that in striving 
to use our own wills in harmony with the laws of our 
being, we are truly partakers of the divine nature. 

J. Mitchell Bruce also recognizes this latent 
force: 

A natural power of the prevention and repair of 
disorders and disease has as real and as active an existence 
within us, as have the ordinary functions of the organs 
themselves. 


POWER WITHIN 


101 


Only One Power—G-od 

Therefore, the healing principle or power is 
within the individnal himself. The mental healer 
does not heal the patient any more than the doc¬ 
tor who sets the broken bone does the knitting. 
What the healer really does is to arouse the divin¬ 
ity, the healing power within the individual. So 
whether the doctor be of one school or another, 
whether the mental healer be of one cult or an¬ 
other, it is always the God force within that heals. 

It is the same energy which first created you 
and sustained you. It is that power which comes 
to your rescue in all your troubles and misfor¬ 
tunes, the same life-giving force which knits the 
bone, heals the cut or wound, repairs the worn- 
out tissues and makes you whole. 

There is only one healing power and that is this 
God creative principle. So it is the God-given 
mind, the divine mind within you which does the 
healing, not outside of you. It is the divine force 
adherent or divine nature that does the healing. 
It is the creative principle which is everywhere 
in the great cosmic intelligence that heals all your 
hurts and restores your health. 

It is the same energy that is locked up in the 
atoms, molecules and electrons of your body; the 


102 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


same force that is within the acorn to make the 
oak, the same principle that is in the tiny germ to 
grow a rose, the same life-giving principle in each 
blade of grass, ear of corn or the redwood of 
the forest. It is the life-giving principle, God, 
Force, which is ever present in all of the universe. 
For the reality of everything is God. 

A close student of the science of the mind has 
said: 

To think of the presence and power of God as a healing 
life force, is to come in actual mental contact with that 
presence. To continue this thought by sturdy affirmation 
of healing truth will attune the mind to harmony with that 
beneficent power, lifting it out of the darkness and heavi¬ 
ness of mortal thinking into the brightness and joy that 
is the result of thinking God’s thought after him. 

With knowledge of this inner consciousness of 
life we come in proper touch with every external thing. 
We know that all life is one; that we are related one to 
another; that the soul of man is one with the great uni¬ 
versal soul.* This realization we manifest in the outer 
world. Instead of viewing chaos and discord on every side, 
we see a great universe operating in accord with eternal 
law, and destined in every part ultimately to reach the 
fullness of perfection. We no longer look upon the world 
as evil, but see in everything the potentiality of good. 

*See chapters on Subconscious in Applied Psychology and 
Scientific Living by the author. 



POWER WITHIN 


103 


Little by little the ideal life is being disclosed; our 
minds, instead of being prone to evil and bemoaning the 
sorrow and misery of the world, become filled with joy 
because we know that all things are working from a lower 
to a higher condition. Thus do we turn from the pessi¬ 
mistic to the optimistic side of life, and become useful 
members of society. 

—Charles Brodie Patterson. 

“ There is a healing power resident in every 
human being. It is the power of God. ’’ Some ex¬ 
pect God to do everything and to do it at once— 
right on the spot—presto chango—without any 
effort on their part. But usually, the individual 
must do his share. Ah! there *s the rub! Some¬ 
one has uniquely put it: 

“How many have turned away on finding that 
one must put forth effort to achieve! As one lady 
said, ‘I would so much rather take a pill, it is so 
much easier/ It is easy to imagine what was in 
the heart of Christ when he said to his followers, 
4 And will ye also go away?’ when they found the 
way of life a rugged, steep ascent /’ 

Others Call it “Vital Force” 

There resides within every physical body this 
vital force, which is constantly doing the best it 
can for us. Much of what we call disease is only a 
defensive action of this life-giving power of reme- 


104 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


dial effect. This is going on within each one of 
us all the time, irrespective of how irregular we 
may live or how much we break the laws of living. 

If, perchance, we swallow a fishbone by mistake, 
this power within, nature’s own chemist, imme¬ 
diately sets to work creating a chemical to dis¬ 
solve the fishbone so that it cannot puncture the 
stomach or intestinal tract. 

That is one way this power within manifests 
itself. If one should swallow poison by mistake, 
the stomach immediately attacks this foreign ele¬ 
ment and does its level best to eject that which is 
hostile to its well-being. 

This is a manifestation of the God-giving power 
within. The life-giving principle is always at 
work, not only to renew our bodies and build up 
old tissues hut to slough off internal growths, to 
make boils come to a head, to purify the body by 
oxygen breathed in with fresh air. In short, it ever 
strives to keep us in normal healthful state, but, 
when a physical inharmony or sickness of any 
kind appears, this same principle, this life force, 
this God power is stimulated to its utmost to 
render abnormal conditions normal. 

This life-giving principle if let alone and not 
tampered with by outside agencies, such as wrong 
eating, over-eating, drugs, vaccine virus and ser- 


POWER WITHIN 


105 


um, is the only power necessary to make one well. 

We help this power within not only by living in 
accordance with hygienic laws, such as proper 
breathing, diet, exercising, being in the sunshine, 
but we stimulate nature to its greatest capacity 
for healing when we have the right attitude of 
mind.* In short, all positive, constructive, faithful 
mental attitudes are a great stimulant to this 
Grod-giving power within to heal. 

i ‘ The healing efforts of the organism striving to 
throw off the morbid substances within the body, 
purging them away in a flux, or burning them up 
with a fever, show the operations of the same 
principle. This, we have seen, is called the vis 
medicatrix naturae, or 'healing power of nature,' 
which operates in man as well as in the case of the 
lower animals—but it is really only the operation 
of the great subconscious mind of the individual." 

Kate Atkinson Boehme, in New Healing Made 
Plain, gives an interesting comment upon the 
same subject:! 

I once saw a slender, delicate little fellow, who had been 
without food for a week, perform a feat that would have 
tested a Samson. He had been thrown into a hypnotic 
sleep in a public hall and kept under the strictest sur- 

*In Volume 6 How to Put the Subconscious Mind to Work, of 
this series, we treat this important aspect at great length. 

t Elizabeth Towne Co,, Publishers, Holyoke, Mass. 



106 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


veillance during the seven days of his fast. At the end of 
the week he was placed in a chair and held down in it by 
six strong policemen. Then the man who held him in 
hypnotic control gave a signal and the little, frail creature 
sprang up and threw off those powerful men as though 
they had been insects. Where did his strength come from ? 
It was certainly not resident in his flabby muscles. 

I have seen many exhibitions of this kind, but the one 
just quoted occurred in a small town and reputable citi¬ 
zens, among them several physicians, testified to its gen¬ 
uineness, while the policemen who figured in the test were 
the regular officers of the town, so there was little or no 
chance for fraud. 

When I was a member of the Society for Psychical 
Research in Boston I saw two hypnotized subjects imper¬ 
sonate Bill Nye and a political orator. Dr. Pfeiffer was 
the hypnotic operator and he simply suggested to the one 
that he was Bill Nye and to the other that he was on the 
stump in the interests of his candidate. The speeches 
began and continued simultaneously, and it was difficult 
for us to follow each speaker, but we heard enough to know 
that the pseudo Bill Nye was irresistibly droll and very 
original, his witty eloquence flowing in a steady stream to 
the end of his long address. The stump speaker was just 
as good in his role, and it seemed remarkable to me that 
each should excel in his own adopted style of oratory. 
Both men in their natural state of mind were very ordi¬ 
nary, hardly up to the mediocre in their degree of intelli¬ 
gence, and yet when under hypnotic control each excelled 
in his line, each differing diametrically from the other. 

The operator could not have given more than a mere 
suggestion to each, for to have given to one speaker his 


POWER WITHIN 


107 


discourse word for word, he must have been an unusually 
fine orator, while to have given the two addresses simul¬ 
taneously would have been a feat to be undertaken only 
by an East Indian adept. 

What, then, was the inference ? Each speaker must have 
tapped for himself the source of his inspiration. In some 
inscrutable manner the suggestion to the one that he was 
Bill Nye must have brought him in contact with Bill Nye’s 
current of thought; he must have tapped it, as it were, 
while the stump speaker must have tapped the current of 
stump oratory. 

These instances and many others that have come under 
my observation have led me to think that under certain 
conditions we come in touch with other minds, and also 
with a great reservoir of Life and Mind containing all 
that we desire to express of strength, vitality, health, 
harmony, opulence and beauty, of even more that we can¬ 
not now imagine. We have but to open the channel and 
it will flow through us. 


Omnipresent—Power—Life 

I believe that students both of pure and of 
applied science are coming to believe now in Om¬ 
nipotent God. Even those claiming to be material¬ 
ists recognize this power. Also the imminence of 
God, that is, that His spirit is in everything. Her¬ 
bert Spencer declared that man is in the presence 


108 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


of an infinite spirit of power. This is now, I 
think, being all but universally accepted.* 

We not only recognize this infinite power every¬ 
where in life and nature, but this Infinite, Omnip¬ 
otent, Omniscient, Omnipresent power manifests 
itself in the highest degree in man. This power 
manifests itself, not from without in, but from 
within out. For example, the oak’s life is not in 
the branches and the bark and its externals, but 
is encased in the heart of the acorn. All manifesta¬ 
tions of this Omnipotent, Omnipresent God power 
comes from within and manifests itself outwardly. 

The sap of the maple tree runs, we say, in the 
Spring. This is the effervescent life of the maple 
tree from within. This infinite power, the Omnip¬ 
otent, ever present God spirit is both found in the 
protoplasm and is manifested without in the form 
life which it produces. 

Life in the oak tree is within the acorn as well 
as within the tree itself. The life in the maple 
tree is within as well and is manifested without. 
The presence of all life is to be found in the proto- 

*For a study of the power or life of God in every atom, mole¬ 
cule and electron of man, see chapters on How to Get What You 
Want and Healing Uses of Music in Practical Psychology and 
Sex Life, Vol. Ill, of Fundamentals of Practical Psychology by 
the author. 



POWER WITHIN 


109 

plasmic cell as well as manifested in the material 
plan of life in all its varied forms. 

So after all, the God spirit, the life-giving im¬ 
pulse which is all health, all harmony, all growth, 
is deep seated within ourselves, and made mani¬ 
fest outwardly. 

Therefore, what man should seek first, so that 
all things shall be added unto him, is a better 
understanding of the mental and spiritual life- 
giving force within, more than the material world 
without, for it is this mental spiritual life within 
from which springs the material without. At no 
time has health been discovered in the external 
world—in the material world. Health is a reflec¬ 
tion of the thoughts within. 

“The outer world is good and useful, but it 
must be a perfect expression of the inner. At best 
it is only the expression of power, while the inner 
world is that power itself. Why should we seek 
health and happiness in the cosmic experience of 
life? Why should we go out of ourselves for 
happiness or any other good thing? We must 
begin with the inner life, making the outer life 
secondary.'’ We must work from within out, not 
from without in, for this power within overcomes 
every obstacle to success, health and happiness. 
We are no more affected by thoughts of others. 


Environment Has No Detrimental Power 


Nor has environment any power over ns unless 
we think it has. We have the spiritual force 
within to make conditions what we will them to be. 
If we think other people’s negative minds are 
affecting us, blocking our progress, cutting us off 
from our goal of achievement, we may, indeed, be 
blocked and cut off, not because their thoughts 
have anything to do with our condition but because 
we allow ourselves to indulge the belief. 

It is in our power to make of ourselves what we 
will. It is in our power to make of our lives what 
we will. It is in our power to make of our environ¬ 
ment what we will.* 

Therefore, let us seek for happiness and health 
and success in the only way in which they can be 
obtained—from within. Let us recognize this inner 
part of our being—“the light that is to lighten 
every man that cometh into the world. ’ ’ Let, us 
realize that God is within us and work from the 
center outward. 

*How to lift yourself from your environment and conditions 
to the place you want to be—see chapter on What Is Love and 
How to Keep It in Applied Psychology and Scientific Living, Vol. 
1 of this series. 


110 



POWER WITHIN 


111 


In The Will to Be Well—Chapter Mental Influ¬ 
ences—by Chas. B. Patterson, the author points 
out the following: 

With knowledge of this inner consciousness of life we 
come in proper touch with every external thing. We know 
that all life is one; that we are related one to another; 
that the soul of man is one with the great universal soul.* 
This realization we manifest in the outer world. Instead 
of viewing chaos and discord on every side, we see a great 
universe operating in accord with eternal law and destined 
in every part ultimately to reach the fullness of perfection. 
We no longer look upon the world as evil, but see in every¬ 
thing the potentiality of good. 

Little by little the ideal life is being disclosed; our 
minds, instead of being prone to evil and bemoaning the 
sorrow and misery of the world, become filled with joy 
because we know that all things are working from a lower 
to a higher condition. Thus do we turn from the pessi¬ 
mistic to the optimistic side of life, and become useful 
members of society.* 

The Opinion of a Great Scientist 

William James was for years teacher of Phi¬ 
losophy and Psychology at Harvard University. 
He was also a graduate of Medicine. He is one of 
the world's greatest authorities on Psychology. 
He says: 

*See Chapters on Subconscious Mind in Applied Psychology 
and Scientific Living, Vol. 1 of this series. 



112 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


We are just now witnessing a very copious unlocking 
of energies by ideas in the persons of those converts to 
"New Thought/’ "Christian Science/’ "Metaphysical Heal¬ 
ing/’ or other forms of spiritual philosophy, who are so 
numerous among us today. The ideas here are health- 
minded and optimistic; and it is quite obvious that a 
wave of religious activity, analogous in some respects to 
the spead of early Christianity, Buddhism, and Moham¬ 
medanism, is passing over our American world. The com¬ 
mon feature of these optimistic faiths is that they all tend 
to the suppression of what Mr. Horace Fletcher calls 
"fearthought,” Fearthought he defines as the "self-sugges¬ 
tion of inferiority”; so that one may say that these systems 
all operate by the suggestion of power. And the power, 
small or great, comes in various shapes to the individual 
—power, as he will tell you, not to "mind” things that used 
to vex him, power to concentrate his mind, good cheer, 
good temper—in short, to put it mildly, a firmer, more 
elastic moral tone. 

The most genuinely saintly person I have ever known 
is a friend of mine now suffering from cancer of the breast 
—I hope that she may pardon my citing her here as an 
example of what ideas can do. Her ideas have kept her 
a practically well woman for months after she should 
have given up and gone to bed. They have annulled all 
pain and weakness and given her a cheerful, active life, 
unusually beneficient to others to whom she has afforded 
help. Her doctors, acquiescing in results they could not 
understand, have had the good sense to let her go her own 
way. 


POWER WITHIN 


113 


How far the mind-cure movement is destined to extend 
its influence, or what intellectual modifications it may yet 
undergo, no one can foretell. It is essentially a religious 
movement, and to academically nurtured minds its utter¬ 
ances are tasteless and often grotesque enough. It also 
incurs the natural enmity of medical politicians, and of 
the whole trades-union wing of that profession. But no 
unprejudiced observer can fail to recognize its importance 
as a social phenomenon today, and the higher medical 
minds are already trying to interpret it fairly, and make 
its power available for their own therapeutic ends. 

From “On Vital Reserves ” 


Materialistic Scientists Agree 

It is being recognized by material scientists and 
by the world of industry that while an optimistic 
thought tends to uplift a pessimistic thought tends 
to break down. Business men all over the country 
are using the little placard, ‘ ‘ Smile, Smile, Smile. ’ ’ 
They realize that it’s a better thing to smile as 
you enter a place of business than to go in with a 
grouch. If they do not appreciate the psychology 
of the slogan, they nevertheless practice its appli¬ 
cation. Smile and others smile. “ Laugh and the 
world laughs with you” is mighty good psy¬ 
chology. 

In other words, the smile thought within pro¬ 
duces a smiling world without. This is true of 
every thought a man entertains. If we have gloom 
and distraction in our minds, we are consciously 
or unconsciously making a gloomy and distressful 
world outside for ourselves and others to live in. 
If we have smiles and laughter within, we produce 
a world of smiles and laughter without. If we 
think brightness and hope, we are using the power 
within to manifest brightness and hope without. 
Whatever we think, we externalize. 


114 


POWER WITHIN 


115 


Sorrowful and distressing thoughts, thoughts 
of failure and limitation, thoughts of poverty and 
misfortune, thoughts of our shortcomings all tend 
by our dwelling' upon^liem to weakeii the body. 
Dwelling mentally upon the bright and beautiful, 
upon the successful and healthful, upon the cheer¬ 
ful and optimistic, tend to strengthen our bodily 
vitality and lend power to our physical healing. 

Therefore, in getting the mind ready to be 
healed, be sure that all sad experiences, distress¬ 
ful thoughts, morbid ruminations and negative 
attitudes of the mind be uprooted and cast away. 
It may involve a hard struggle, but you can do it. 

If we think positive thoughts we produce a 
positive world for ourselves. If we think fear 
thoughts we produce a fearful world in which we 
have to live. If we think success thoughts, we 
manifest success without. If we think prosperity 
thoughts, we make prosperity real. The outer 
world is a picture of the inner world. If we think 
strong thoughts, happy thoughts, wholesome 
thoughts, health thoughts, joy thoughts, smile 
thoughts, then we produce the kind of world with¬ 
out which they suggest. It is only by thinking the 


116 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


strongest, most positive thoughts and entertaining 
the most cheerful and optimistic thoughts that we 
create the only kind of a world worth living in.* 

Now, this power within, whether used for smiles 
or distress, sorrow or laughter, courage or fear, 
achievement or failure, abundance or limitation, is 
the same power through which by thinking health 
thoughts produces health. “If we wish to be 
healthy and to do good in the world, we shall 
accomplish most by recognizing the oneness of 
life and that our finite life is a part of the Infinite. 
And just as we have faith in this infinite power 
within, faith for successes, prosperity, cheerful¬ 
ness, happiness, achievement, courage and health, 
so will these things, set going by the infinite 
power within, be manifested without.’ ’ 

“We Live and Move and Have Our Being” 

This power is within each individual because 
God has placed it there. It is all about you because 
God is everywhere. “We live and move and have 
our being in Him.” This power can be used by 
you because you are in vital relation with God. 
We manifest this power by obeying the law of 

*In Psychology of Success, page 51, we give some formulae 
to develop strong, positive and courageous thoughts within to 
externalize without. 



POWER WITHIN 


117 


right thinking, speaking and acting. We can gov¬ 
ern our thoughts, words and actions. We can have 
all of this God-given power we need to use aright. 
“I can do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth me.” To hold a thought for realiza¬ 
tion of this power is to put us in At-One-Ment 
with the Divine. 

Abnormal conditions, wrong thinking and act¬ 
ing, bad habits, ill health, failure and lack can be 
changed by using this power wisely, lovingly and 
positively. 

This power within is perfect, because it is God 
Power. There can be no imperfection in God. If 
we fall short of our desires or ambitions or happi¬ 
ness, it is due to our imperfect manifestation of 
the power, or lack of faith in the one through 
whom the power works. 

One of the biggest handicaps to healing by mind 
is the fact that so many people who are sick for 
one reason or another, do not have enough ambi¬ 
tion or pep to want to do their necessary part in 
effecting a healing. They are willing to be healed 
if they can be healed without any effort on their 
part. If God can do it instantly, they are willing 
to be healed, but to live in harmony with certain 
hygienic laws without which God can make no one 
well, stumps many a good person who is sick. 


118 PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


It may be the sick person has had his nerves 
raw and been depressed for such a long time that 
he has lost the grit and gumption necessary to 
arouse within him the spirit to do his part toward 
effecting a healing. Be that as it may, the fact 
remains that many a person is not healed because 
he does not do his part to help God to help him 
to heal himself. 

Most Patients Need Assistance 

That is the reason that it is so necessary for 
the patient to have a practitioner. 

Besides this, two minds focused on the same 
object have more strength than one, five minds 
more strength than two. 

That is the reason why in our great classes we 
have so many people who are healed while the 
classes are in session. Five hundred people or a 
thousand all coming together for two and a half 
hours a night with minds that are positive, are 
inextricably blended into one stupendous spiritual 
whole, making vibrations of the strongest kind. 

For instance, one blind man, whom the doctors 
said was so blind and so beyond recovery that if 
he had $50,000 he could not be healed, began to get 
light in my classes. He very often had much bet- 


POWER WITHIN 


119 


ter sight immediately after the class was over, 
recognizing landmarks as he made his way home 
that before were not perceived. 

Any one who is not making satisfactory head¬ 
way in effecting self healing should by all means 
consult and work with a good mental healer. 


This Life-Giving Power Never Rests 

This force to heal is the same force which first 
makes a life. It is always at work, whether we are 
conscious of it or not. We may turn aside, not 
heeding the impulse, but it is always there. It is 
the same force and power that is within the seed, 
the sapling, the rose, the oak tree, the heavens 
above and the earth beneath. The force is spent 
in different directions but it is the same force 
nevertheless. “Some call it nature, others call it 
God.” 

As the power of mind becomes more and more 
understood, the use of drugs will fall into disuse 
and be supplemented by this great life-giving 
energy within man. Drug medication is a failure, 
in so far as curative effects are concerned, else 
the world would not be sick. If it be true, as sta¬ 
tistics apparently prove, that 90 per cent of the 
people in America are sick, no more evidence need 
be adduced. All that drugs do is to act as, a stimu¬ 
lant, as a whip and spur to arouse this healing 
virtue within. 

Barring accidents, all disease is lowered vital¬ 
ity. This lowered physical condition may be due 
to continued and depressing emotions, fear of 


120 


POWER WITHIN 


121 


disease, wounded pride or loss of property, friends 
or ambition. In short, it may be traceable to any 
form of negative thinking and inharmonious 
living. 

Disease is an evidence of weakness of the con¬ 
trolling forces of the mind and body. That which 
keeps us alive is mind, that which can make us 
well is the same. 

Pure blood, unhindered nerve impulse, proper 
diet, exercise, fresh air and right mental attitude 
withal establishes the proper relation between the 
conscious and subconscious mind. This cannot but 
bring perfect health. 

If You Want Medicine, Use It 

We have mentioned elsewhere that all cures 
are self-cures; that the most medicine can do is to 
act as a spur, to stir up the latent power within. 
Medicine does not give power but arouses the 
latent power. 

In all of my classes I am asked, do we have to 
give up medicine? I always reply: No, if you have 
to have a medical crutch, use it. When you reach 
the higher consciousness it will not be necessary. 

Most of the people who come into an under¬ 
standing of mind cure have been educated and 
reared where not only themselves but their fore- 


122 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


bears have been grounded in the idea that materia 
medica is the solution for all of the ills of life 
and without a doctor’s counsel the sick man might 
as well make ready to give up the jig. 

If your faith in medicine is strong enough, you 
will be healed despite the medicine, not because of 
it. If your belief in the family physician is suffi¬ 
cient to arouse faith for healing, by all means call 
the family physician. If you need the electric cur¬ 
rent vibrator, X-ray, change of scene, diversion, 
or any other thing that may arouse within you 
a suggestion strong enough for healing, use them 
—I would not. 

I am sure, however, that whatever means are 
used, whether drugs or the above mentioned 
assistance, if one takes a suggestion for healing, 
the healing will be all the quicker. 

When one remembers that medical authorities 
of the highest repute tell us that certain organs of 
the body are self-renewing and that it is a puzzle 
to them how these parts wear out, it gives us food 
for thought—that it must be the mind which 
directs this renewing process.* 

But a person gradually comes into the higher 
consciousness that nature is its own natural chem- 

*In Volume V of this series, in speaking about cells, their 
growth and renewing, we have taken this up at great length. 



POWER WITHIN 


123 


ist and if let alone will heal itself. The prejudices 
of the novitiate nevertheless unconsciously cling 
to the old idea that medicine might be helpful or 
that a doctor’s advice is necessary. 

In that event I see no reason why the doctors 
should not be consulted and if necessary their 
medicine taken—if you must have a crutch to 
lean on. After you come into a fuller knowledge 
of mind cure you will need no crutch. In every¬ 
thing in which man participates he has to take his 
first step. We crawl before we walk and we walk 
before we run. The natural evolutionary step for 
people who have been grounded in medical belief 
is to ‘Hake a little medicine for the stomach’s 
sake. ’ ’ If you must have medicine, take it. If you 
must have the counsel of a doctor, get the counsel, 
but forget the diagnosis. Get his personal mag¬ 
netism to bolster up your faith in the fact that you 
are going to be healed but think of your faith 
healing and not of the gruesome symptoms or the 
diagnosis which may be made. 

If you have to have a medical crutch, use it. By 
and by you will fling it away. 

Anyway, most all reputable physicians use more 
or less psychology. They are certainly using less 
and less medicine. So if the practitioner is not 


124 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


belligerent and the doctor is charitable there is no 
reason why the physician and spiritual therapeu¬ 
tist should not, when necessary, work in entire 
harmony. 


Medicine and Mind Cures Differ 

There is a great difference between the mental 
healer and the medical practitioner, and herein is 
the crux of the whole matter. The physician works 
from the outside in, while the mental therapeutist 
works from the inside out. In other words, ma¬ 
teria medica starts with the supposition that man 
is material; the spiritual therapeutist, on the con¬ 
trary, begins with the fact that man is not mate¬ 
rial but mental—spiritual. 

The mental healer believes that the spiritual or 
mental power within is its own actual chemist and 
that this mental chemistry reacts upon the mate¬ 
rial side of man to heal the material. The physi¬ 
cian believes that the most important thing is to 
inject some foreign substance in powders, poisons, 
serums or toxins—which in themselves are mate¬ 
rial—into the material of man to make him well. 
This is the wrong angle entirely. 

The doctor begins with his diagnosis, deduced 
from the apparent symptoms, from the material 
angle, but his diagnosis is very often wrong. Eight 
or wrong, he proceeds to administer some foreign 
substance into the material man. That an unlim- 


125 


126 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


ited amount of harm has thus been done is recog¬ 
nized by many doctors themselves. One doctor 
who made enough money at the age of forty to 
retire from his practice told me that medicine had 
killed more people than it had healed. Oliver Wen¬ 
dell Holmes, who for forty years was a professor 
in the Harvard Medical School, said that if all the 
medicine in the world were dumped into the ocean 
it would be better for man but worse for the 
fishes. 

Therefore, as far as healing is concerned, the 
mental therapeutist does not care whether the 
disease is local, organic, hereditary, chronic, ner¬ 
vous or what. Mind, God’s great chemist, can 
effect the healing just the same. 

Therapeutic methods have been applied as suc¬ 
cessfully to organic diseases as to nervous di¬ 
seases. The therapeutic pioneers, Quimby, W. F. 
Evans, Mary Baker Eddy, Mr. Dresser, were 
themselves cured of serious organic diseases.* 

Get It With a Punch 

Oliver C. Sabin puts a punch in giving his ex¬ 
pression on this subject: 


*See comment at great length How to Put the Subconscious 
Mind to Work, Vol. VIII of this series, on all kinds of diseases, 
including organic, healed by mind. 



POWER WITHIN 


127 


It is not necessary to turn a person down because he 
has to have a doctor. That is absurd. Let your patients 
have doctors if they want them. A patient in an Eastern 
State who was very seriously ill had three doctors. When 
they telegraphed to me the woman had passed out, as they 
thought, but the husband said that she was dying. All 
around were weeping; three doctors were in the house. 
Five of us went to work on the case, and after half an 
hour the woman came to and was apparently on the road 
to recovery. We treated that God would harmonize that 
woman and drive out all fear, and that He would teach 
those doctors to do what was right. They had a consulta¬ 
tion next day and decided that the woman was so ill and 
her disease was so peculiar that medicine could not do her 
any good, and that they would give her no medicine. So 
you see you can control the situation. God does not need 
medicine to heal his sick. I have no use for medicine; I 
do not take medicine; I am beyond it. God Almighty’s 
power is omnipotent; but if any of these weaklings do not 
think it enough, let them have quinine; let them have 
bitter-root; let them have bread pills; let them have some¬ 
thing to fill that carnal mind and destroy fear. That is 
all the good medicine does in this world. It destroys fear. 
There are some cases that I do not take unless they have 
a doctor. I will not touch them—such cases as those in 
which the law requires a physician. 

On the other hand, if artificial remedies are habitually 
called into requisition and the attention of the objective 
mind is more largely drawn upon, the suffering and dis¬ 
comfort will be the greater, and a sort of hyper-sensitive 
character will be developed. Such a person will notice and 
enlarge upon a great number of things, which may become 


128 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


morbid auto-suggestions, with the physiological results of 
which such suggestions are capable. 

That which will contribute toward the objective and 
subjective character of self-sufficiency should be made a 
rule of action. If the mind is thoroughly imbued with 
the idea that within one is power equal to all ordinary 
conditions, and even extreme conditions, such a mind will 
prove itself a giant in times of extreme need. 

Many people who have such explicit confidence 
and faith in doctors, medicines, drugs and other 
systems and who have never yet been healed may, 
of course, be healed by suggestion, but if they 
are so strongly entrenched in their belief in other 
means it may be well to use masked suggestion. 
Sometimes, in doing this, it may be a bread pill 
instead of a medicated capsule. There is a cer¬ 
tain amount of deception in this kind of healing 
which personally I object to, but the reader will 
remember this series is written to give of many 
ways of healing, not those which appeal to the 
author. 


Diagnosis Not Always Right 

We have mentioned elsewhere,* quoting from a 
reputable physician, that it is doubtful if the doc¬ 
tors know the cause of any case, and the diag¬ 
noses are very often wrong. If you care to verify 
this, start out tomorrow yourself, healthy as you 
are and visit five different doctors, telling them 
you are sick and ask them to diagnose your case. 
I have won my bet before you start; there will not 
be two doctors who will agree upon a diagnosis. 

In mental healing, diagnosis is not necessary. 
We do not want to know what causes the disease 
but how the patient may become well. With the 
spiritual therapeutist it is not primary whether 
the disease be organic, nerves,‘‘mental’’ or what¬ 
not, a life is at stake. The question is, is the pa¬ 
tient ready and pliable and willing to cooperate? 

Mental healing methods have been successfully 
applied to organic as well as to other kinds of 
disease. The pioneers in this mental science move¬ 
ment were themselves cured of serious organic 
diseases, before they began their public work with 
the sick. 


"Practical Psychology and Sex Life, p. 341. 

129 



130 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 

Suppose a person sees a diagnostician and is 
told that he has tumor. Instantly the heart beats 
faster, the circulation increases, fear of the hor¬ 
rible thing grips him with such tenacity that he 
immediately puts his hand on his side where the 
tumor is supposed to be, thinks about this with 
all of the added impetus the frightful suggestion 
could make, his mind is fixed upon this region, the 
increased blood supply flows there, but not health 
blood—Tumor!! 

On the other hand, mental therapeutics is never 
a hindrance to other means employed, but it will 
aid and hasten in perfecting cures that could not 
so speedily be effected without its employment. 

Oh, how interesting and illuminating it is to 
read how Dr. W. S. Thayer, professor of clinical 
medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, in a 
recent issue of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulle¬ 
tin, expresses himself strongly as a believer in 
more simple physical and psychical methods of 
treating diseases. He refers to the great advances 
made in recent years in the utilization of these 
simple methods. He refers to the last century’s 
comparative failure of drug medication, and says: 

The delivery from poly-pharmacy, the employment of 
the simpler physical means of treatment, instead of con¬ 
stant aimless experiments with drugs, with the action of 


POWER WITHIN 


131 


which we were wholly unfamiliar and which more often 
than not were harmful rather than beneficial, those 
methods were great blessings. But the tree of medical 
science had not yet begun to bear its first fruit of real 
improvements, in the art of healing. In the last twenty 
years, however, great changes have come to pass. The in¬ 
troduction of scientific methods of study into certain 
branches of medicine have inevitably brought about habits 
of more exact thinking in other branches. Men trained in 
exact methods of thought and action could not fail to 
realize the folly and danger of an indiscriminate use of 
drugs. 

An awakening is gradually coming over the profession 
with regard to the enormous therapeutic reservoir which 
we have in the rational and carefully planned application 
of the more simple physical and mental methods of treat¬ 
ment. Few of us often consider the part that the pure 
physical and psychical methods of treatment play in the 
case of the great majority of maladies which come under 
our observation. It is no exaggeration to say that these 
methods are the most important that we have. True suc¬ 
cess in practice is usually dependent upon the attention 
of the physician to the little physical and psychical details 
of his work. But the world at large takes a very different 
view of the practice of physic, and it is even amazing to 
see how deep rooted is the faith in medical magic. The 
rise and development of the trained nurse, however, is an 
interesting evidence of the fact that the public is begin¬ 
ning to realize these truths. 

What does the patient mean when he says, as he often 
does, that, after all, a good nurse is more important than 
a physician? He means that the measures carried out by 


132 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the nurse, the care she has taken of his skin, his muscles, 
the judicious preparation and administration of his diet, 
the little attentions which promote his general physical 
comfort, the confidence inspired by her cheerful and tactful 
behavior, have had more to do with his recovery than any 
other prescription that the doctor has given him, and he is 
right. 

Also, the awakening of interest in the study and appli¬ 
cation of psychical methods of treatment is important and 
hopeful, and not its least importance lies, perhaps, in the 
fact that many have forgotten to teach their students— 
some have failed to realize themselves—that by the mental 
control which we gain over our patients we can often 
accomplish more than by any other means. The so-called 
“Christian Scientist” has discovered this; finds for himself 
a satisfactory explanation in his circumscribed religion, 
and, with a simple ignorance of the elements of the natural 
sciences, constructs a grotesque system which, while help¬ 
ing some, leads many astray. 

Many of the so-called “homeopathic” practitioners must 
realize well that it is rather their confident assertions than 
their dilutions that tide their patients over the passing 
malady. 

But the physician does not always realize that that 
which superstition and ignorance and ill-faith may accom¬ 
plish he, too, can do equally well by properly directed 
effort, honestly and intelligently. More time and thought 
should be given by physicians to the care of the mental 
attitude of the sick. 

“ Whilst we do not agree altogether with what 
Dr. Thayer says about other practitioners, yet 
we do fully agree with him concerning the state- 


POWER WITHIN 


133 


ments which he makes about the mental condi¬ 
tions. 9 9 

I have quoted at length from Dr. Thayer and in 
reference to things that could well be omitted, but 
the climax of his whole statement is found in the 
emphasis which he places in the use of the simpler 
and more natural methods and the utilization of 
psychical principles which the leading physicians 
are adopting and will adopt more fully in the years 
to come. 

Every believer in mental-therapeutics knows 
that there is a psychical as well as a physical 
effect from the use of drugs. The psychical value 
is based on the expectation of their special action, 
and that which is in the physician’s mind may be 
subtly and powerfully carried over into the pa¬ 
tient ’s mind. The physician’s personality, attitude 
and interest in the patient accomplishes vastly 
more than the drugs he prescribes or administers. 
If he is cheerful and hopeful, he gives potency to 
their action; if he is gloomy, pessimistic and hope¬ 
less he nullifies their effects. The cure of the 
patient is effected through the subconscious mind, 
and the attitude and bearings of the physician, 
attendants, the surroundings and the medicines 
employed become powerful suggestions. 


134 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


When the physician tells the probable action of 
the drugs which he prescribes or gives, he is ap¬ 
plying suggestion in a larvated form. If the drug 
has given general satisfaction in producing cer¬ 
tain results or effects, he gives the suggestions 
more assuringly, and the patient believes what he 
says and the corresponding results follow. If he 
is not certain as to results, and not assuring as to 
his belief, there may be little or no effects. 

Some physicians have made minute and specific 
tests of this and have been surprised at the re¬ 
sults. A friend of mine gave a forcible sugges¬ 
tion with a potion which had no medical value and 
secured good results. 

To sum up, while we are not dogmatic relative 
to the use or non-use of drugs, it is well for the 
patient to know that under ordinary circumstances 
the healing surely will be better effected if no 
drugs are used, but if you think you must have 
drugs, take them until you reach a higher con¬ 
sciousness. 

I agree with the famous Hr. Eichard C. Cabot, 
of the Harvard Medical School, who says that the 
medical environment is most unfavorable to a 
patient’s recovery. 


POWER WITHIN 


135 


Sick people who are steeped in the medical atmosphere, 
where they constantly hear the talk of disease symptoms, 
find it very difficult to get away from the sick thought. 
They are saturated with it when the mind ought to be 
filled with just the opposite. They should be in an atmos¬ 
phere where everything around them will suggest health, 
instead of sickness and disease. 

To Come Back to the Basic Principle 

The following is clipped from a medical jour¬ 
nal: i i Some physician makes jise of this sugges¬ 
tive phrase—‘the dynamic power of an idea/ and, 
as an illustration of what is meant by this expres¬ 
sion, the following incident is related. Not long 
ago a man in taking medicine was suddenly pos¬ 
sessed by the notion that he had by mistake taken 
.arsenic. His wife insisted to the contrary, but he 
proceeded to manifest all the peculiar symptoms 
of arsenical poisoning, and finally died. So cer¬ 
tain was his wife that he had not taken arsenic 
that an autopsy was held, when not an atom of the 
poison could be found. Of what did this man die? 
Arsenic? No, of the dynamic power of an idea 
of arsenic. Happily for humanity this dynamic 
power of ideas works constructively no less cer¬ 
tainly than it does destructively, and an idea of 
health fixed in the consciousness and persistently 
adhered to would tend to bring the best results. 


136 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Over a hundred years ago, old John Hunter said, 
‘As the state of mind is capable of producing 
disease, another state of it may effect a cure/ ” 

Well has Thomas Parker Boyd stated the same 
thing: 

Within this body dwells the thinking, feeling, willing 
self. And he dwells in every cell of it. Every cell and 
group of cells is intelligent, and will respond to the 
thought given them to such an extent as to actually become 
like the pattern or image or thought which the conscious 
mind gives to the subconscious.* 

*See Practical Psychology and Sex Life for a continued study 
of intelligence in cells. 



Illustration 

One of our modern psychologists describes an 
interesting experiment which illustrates the effect 
of the mind upon the body in another way. He 
shows how a mere thought tends toward expres¬ 
sion. This is the experiment: a delicate register¬ 
ing instrument is attached to the throat of a stu¬ 
dent, who speaks a sentence. This causes the 
instrument to make a certain graphic record. The 
student whispers the same sentence, and the rec¬ 
ord is again made, though not so distinct as the 
first time. The student merely tMnhs the sentence 
and there is an effort on the part of the instrument 
to make the same records as before, when the 
sentence was spoken. The effect is not startling 
if one knows that it is the nature of every thought 
to lead to bodily expression. Thinking the sen¬ 
tence produced invisible involuntary muscular 
movements in the throat of the student, which 
movements caused the delicate instrument to 
vibrate. 

In “Suggestion and Psycho-Therapy ,’’ by Ja¬ 
cobi, is a description of an experiment with a 
watch, which illustrates this same physical truth, 
namely, that thought tends to bodily expression: 


137 


138 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Hold the free end of a string having a weight attached 
to the other, or the free end of a watch chain between 
thnmb and forefinger, so that the watch will swing freely 
and constitute a pendulum. Bring the watch into a state 
of rest. Concentrate your thoughts upon the motionless 
pendulum and keep thinking, and saying to yourself, “Now 
the watch will move forward and backward;” with proper 
concentration of mind the watch will, as a result of min¬ 
imal, unconscious, and involuntary muscular movements 
move to and fro. Then change your thoughts to “the watch 
will now move from side to side,” and in a moment the 
direction of the movement of the watch will have changed 
to accord with the new train of thought. 

That our thoughts can be read in our muscle system 
is interesting and valuable confirmation of the unconscious 
tendency of ideas to affect the body. 

We can prove this for ourselves. You do not 
have to take the word of a psychologist. 

Notice how thought leads to bodily expression 
when the person is in a high state of anger, or if 
he is maligning a neighbor. Look closely at the 
speaker and you will see an expression in his face 
akin to his thoughts. If a man says, I hate you, 
I hate you, I hate you! the face has an expression 
altogether different from the one apparent when 
he says, I love you, I love you, I love you. The 
effect is the same whether the man speaks the 
words or not. Merely thinking changes the bodily 
expression. For instance, we cannot think the 


POWER WITHIN 


139 


words “contemptible ’ 9 and “disgusting’’ without 
a slight elevation of the upper lip and nostrils. 

“We notice the expression of emotion more in 
the countenance,’ ’ says Halleck, 4 ‘ because the 
effects are there more plainly visible; but the 
muscles of the entire body, the vital organs and 
the viscera are also vehicles of expression. ” 

Certain mind readers testify that their power 
lies mainly in their ability to read the almost 
invisible and wholly involuntary muscle move¬ 
ments which accompany thought. 

Whatever a man thinks is registered upon his 
countenance. Whatever the predominating thought 
it is chiseled in physical expression upon the body. 
I say the body, yes. For not only does the face 
express the thoughts but the whole body as well. 
This is what has given rise to the science of human 
analysis, character analysis and palm reading. 

If a man’s dominating thought is wholesome, he 
has a more elastic step, a sprightlier gait and 
much happier bodily expression. If his dominat¬ 
ing thought is unwholesome—for instance, a con¬ 
viction that some disease is developing—the body 
takes on an altogether different expression and if 
he dwells long enough upon the disease thought, 
that which he fears, he will have. 


140 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


As someone has said: 

The brain is a switchboard receiving impressions from 
the outside world through the sense organs and sensory- 
nerves, and sending these impressions out to the muscles 
through the motor nerves. Every thought tends to express 
itself unless it is switched off by an opposing thought. It 
is the thought we accept that becomes the act. 

Now what is the chief problem of the psychotherapist 
and the metaphysical practitioner? Simply to teach his 
patient to accept the wholesome, health-giving thought and 
reject the injurious. And thousands of persons have found 
their way to well-dom by learning to eliminate undesirable 
thoughts and by knowing how to hold fast to the health 
ideal until it becomes imaged in the subconscious. It is 
absurd to ignore the facts of these persons’ experience. 

Kate Atkinson Boehme in “New Thought-Heal¬ 
ing Made Plain”* states this in a most pleasing 


manner. 


Imperceptible Motion 

Students and patients are often discouraged because 
they do not for a time perceive any good effects from study 
or treatment. They should then be encouraged by learning 
a few facts connected with imperceptible motion. They 
should be reminded of the constant motion in our bodies 
of which we are unaware. What, for instance, do we know 
of the swift coursing of the blood through veins and ar¬ 
teries? What do we know of the constant activity in 
building bodily tissues? Cells are being torn down and 
new ones built, but this is imperceptible to us. What do 
we know of the digestive process except for the unpleasant 
sensation of slow digestion, and that is not so much an 
activity as its cessation ? Many of the bodily motions might 
be completely revolutionized without our knowledge, until 
later when we noted an improvement in health. 

Patients sometimes stop treatment while all this won¬ 
derful recuperative activity is going on within impercepti¬ 
bly, and when the treatment is thus stopped the outer 
result is never made manifest, and the patient mistakenly 
thinks the treatment has had no effect, whereas it has had 
an effect, but only interiorly. 

The action of thought is imperceptible; hence it is hard 
for us to realize it to be a force. In the immense tract of 
the Subconscious there is always motion that is imper¬ 
ceptible. We do not see and feel thought when it goes 
forth to bring to us our own, or perform its mission of 

*“New Thought-Healing Made Plain,” by Kate Atkinson 
Boehme, Elizabeth Towne Co., Holyoke, Mass., publisher. 

141 



142 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


healing, and there are great powers working within us 
of which the Conscious Mind is unaware. 

We stand upon an apparently quiet and stationary earth, 
and yet we are flying through space with incredible speed, 
turning somersaults the while, but this motion is to us 
imperceptible. Do you then find it difficult to believe that 
other motion may be equally imperceptible, and that the 
appearance of inaction may be as illusive as that of the 
earth appearing stationary? 

When you are inclined to feel discouraged, remember 
that your conscious thought controls the imperceptible 
motion in your body. Depression and discouragement have 
a bad effect upon this motion, while hope and courage have 
a good effect and stimulate recuperation. 

Braid took four men between forty and fifty 
years of age, and told them to fix their attention 
on their hands for five minutes. One, a member 
of the Royal Academy, felt intense cold in the 
hand; an author, darting and pricking pains; a 
mayor felt heat; a scientific man had the arm 
cataleptically fixed to the table.* 

Philip Zenner in Mind Cure and Other Essays 
says: 

Occasionally a great shock, fright and the like, results 
in the sudden disappearance of symptoms; for instance, 
the house afire causes one paralyzed and bed-ridden for 
years to get up and walk. Years ago I saw a lady from 
Alabama who had not spoken aloud for years. She had 
what we term hysterical aphonia. Some years later her 


Braid, Hypnotism, XX. 93. 



POWER WITHIN 


143 


husband died and with the shock of his death her voice 
returned. Such favorable results are rare. Far more 
frequently a shock makes the patient’s condition worse. 

So, if one says that the bodily expression is 
fixed by mind and that thinking changes the cells 
of the body and its chemicalization as well as the 
contour of this tabernacle of the living God, then, 
as Thomas Parker Boyd says in “The Voice Eter- 
nal, ”* you will have to face two things that are of 
the utmost importance: 

First, that there will often be slow progress; you will 
not be able to reconstruct yourself in a day. It often 
takes time so that you must settle down to the proposition 
that any stronghold that cannot be taken by assault may 
be taken by a siege, so that you must have patience and 
let your soul abide in the peace of God within you, know¬ 
ing that you cannot fail. Second, sometimes you will 
feel actually worse than better after the first attempt. 
This may be due to the chemical changes that take place 
as a result of the new thought forces you have set in 
motion. Or, it may arise out of the conflicting thoughts 
you are sending to your subconscious mind. For instance, 
you give yourself the suggestion that your ills or troubles 
will be at an end, and the proposed results are so great 
from causes so seemingly inadequate, because you are not 
acquainted with them, that there arises a doubt in your 
mind which is stronger than your health suggestion, and 
as a result you are worse than you were at first. These 

*“The Voice Eternal” by Thomas Parker Boyd, Thomas Parker 
Boyd, Publisher, San Francisco. 



144 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


two difficulties you must be prepared to meet. They do 
not always arise, but often they do, and it is well to provide 
against a lapse of faith, on account of a temporary failure. 
And finally bear in mind: 

Further, you have the duty of asserting your potential¬ 
ities. You are made for health and happiness. Never 
forget it. You were created as a child of God. Live up 
to your birthright. You are in God’s thought and love a 
nobler being than you are living at present—you have a 
greater power than you are exercising, you can render a 
fuller service to yourself and humanity and God than you 
have as yet dreamed. The thoughts of your heart make 
the deeds of your life. Our thoughts do not end with the 
thinking. Thought is power, and has its issue in reality. 
Every thought leaves its impress within as without. Every 
thought leaves its indelible record within. “I am a part 
of all that I have met,” Tennyson wrote in his Ulysses. 
And all that we have thought also becomes a part of us. 
Every evil thought degrades us and stains and scars the 
fiber of our soul. But every good thought is a new 
strength and blessing to the soul. A noble soul is built 
up of noble thoughts. 

Most marvelous work has been accomplished in this 
world by those who in the power of God have lived their 
lives and have done their deeds. The supreme mind in 
this world is the mind of Christ. And yet—listen to this 
appeal: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus.” These are audacious words, but they express a 
great truth and a living possibility. Something of that 
mind which was in Christ Jesus, you may have, if you 
ask God for it—so that you may think some of His great 


POWER WITHIN 


145 


thoughts after Him. The mind of Jesus was purity, 
humility, nobility, divinity. The mind of Jesus was wise 
with a heavenly wisdom and warm with a divine love. 
“A man’s thoughts cannot dwell in that atmosphere of 
goodness, without, by very contagion, becoming infected 
with divine ambition.” 































•• 










. 

























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O 










• • 








. 


- 





































































RESERVE ENERGY 


Man, the Mighty 


The human being may be likened to a traveler 
standing upon the shore of the great Niagara and 
watching with what ease, apparent poise and pla¬ 
cidity the volume of water with its mighty force 
and power plunges into the foaming, seething pool 
below. One standing on the bank would scarcely 
believe that power can be generated from the 
waterfalls into electricity sufficient to light all of 
the cities in the country. Yet when properly used 
the power is there to accomplish as much as that. 

So with men. When we look upon the ordinary 
person and see just his common, every-day actions 
and his compliance with conditions about him, we 
seldom realize that within man is a far greater 
fund of power and force than is ever manifested 
in any of his ordinary everyday actions. 

As you stand upon the river’s bank you see but 
a part of the water, that which is on the surface, 
and yet there are layers upon layers or strata 
after strata of water down to the depths of the 
river. You really see but a small part of the water 


147 




148 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


that is actually there. In like manner there is 
within you a submerged power, mentality, con¬ 
sciousness, layer upon layer, to a great depth. 

If understood, man has the faculty when occa¬ 
sion requires to tap these layers of mental and 
spiritual power and direct them into the genera¬ 
tion of needed strength and mind for his health, 
success and happiness. 

Thought Controls All 

Thought controls all of the actions of the body. 
It controls the secretions of the glands and every 
functional activity of all of the organs. For ex¬ 
ample, should you slip on a banana peeling, the 
heart beats faster and the face flushes. What 
did it? The banana peeling? No. The result of 
the unexpected. Have you ever experienced a 
shock until goose pimples stood out all over you 
or perspiration poured from your skin? What 
did it? The shock? No. The reaction of the 
shock upon the mind did it. Therefore, the mind 
reacting to the shock controlled the condition of 
the muscular tissue and the action of the respira¬ 
tory glands. “All is mind” and the mind has 
many degrees and layers.* 

*See Chapters 21-22-24, Applied Psychology and Scientific Liv¬ 
ing, Vol. 1 in this series. 



RESERVE ENERGY 


149 


Second Wind 

When the human mind is stimulated, strength¬ 
ened and energized, it becomes a powerful agent 
both for moral and physical recovery—the lower 
levels are tapped. 

This is what Professor James calls the second 
wind—what the runner experiences when he has 
apparently come to the end of his strength. By a 
determined effort of the will he reaches a fresh 
state of mental and physical energizing and is 
able to rush on and do as much as he did before. 
We say he has got his second wind. This is equally 
true of the mind. When one, by the effort of will, 
forces his lagging brain to take up the thread of 
work that he seems to be unequal to, there comes 
invariably a new supply of energy enabling him 
to forge ahead with a freshness and vigor that is 
most surprising after the previous lassitude, and 
yet the second wind does not end at all. The same 
process may be repeated a second and a third 
time. Each new effort of the will is followed by a 
new power of energy. 

Many a man will tell you that he does his best work 
in the wee watches of the morning, after tedious hours of 
perserving but fruitless effort. Instead of being exhausted 
by its long hours of persistent endeavor, the mind seems 
now to rise to the acme of its power, to achieve its supreme 


150 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


accomplishments. Difficulties melt into thin air, profound 
problems find easy solution. Flights of genius manifest 
themselves. Yet long before midnight such a one had 
perhaps felt himself yield to fatigue and had tied a wet 
towel around his head or had taken stimulants to keep 
himself awake. 

This reserve supply of energy or power, resides 
within each individual. This is not exceptional 
and the experience of certain individuals only. 
It is merely that most people have not yet learned 
how to draw upon this hidden force and power. 
If we do not utilize this reserve power, it is simply 
because we have accustomed ourselves to yield too 
soon to the first drawn feeling of fatigue. Almost 
everyone has experienced at some time such a 
feeling as this: dragging one's self out of bed in 
the morning when, instead of feeling fresh and 
invigorated, one wishes to goodness one did not 
have to go to work. He doesn't feel like working 
that day—but the stress of business cares im¬ 
pending urges him on. The importance of his 
duty acts as a prod and although he goes to busi¬ 
ness in a state of fatigue and lassitude and has to 
drive himself all morning, he gets finally, perhaps 
in mid-afternoon, into his working stride and is 
then ready to go at a licketyclip pace. This he 
maintains not only for the rest of the working 


RESERVE ENERGY 


151 


hours, but until long past the accustomed time 
for quitting his post of duty. 

How We Feel—What We Need 

Every business man has days when he does 
not feel at par, the brain does not seem to work, 
his wits are befogged, he hesitates to undertake 
important interviews, interest in his business lags, 
everything seems to be done only at the cost of 
prodigious effort and then not done as well as it 
usually is. But experience has taught him, whether 
he analyzes himself or not, it does not matter, 
experience has taught him that if he persistently 
holds himself to the business at hand, sooner or 
later he will warm up to his work, the clouds will 
disperse, enthusiasm will come and the chips fly. 
No rest has been taken, on the contrary there has 
been continued conscious effort, but it is because 
the second layer of the mind and bodily reserve 
has been tapped. 

In a time like this what most any one needs is 
some great impulse or strong desire to sweep him 
over the threshold of the first inertia, into the 
wide field of reserve energy so rarely called upon, 
yet so rich in power. It has been the spur of 
love or ambition or the cruel lash of necessity that 


152 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


has made men accomplish mental and physical 
feats of which they had supposed themselves in¬ 
capable. 

Speaking in this regard, a certain lawyer has 
commented about his early struggles: 

When I was twenty-three years old, married, and with 
a family to support, I entered the law course of a great 
university. Of the many students in my class, seven, 
including me, were making a living while studying law. 

By special arrangement, I was relieved from attendance 
at lectures and simply required to pass examinations on 
the various subjects, and was thus enabled to retain my 
place as principal of a large public school. During the 
third and last year of my law course, I was principal of 
a public day school of two thousand children and an alter¬ 
nate night school with an enrolment of seven hundred 
and fifty, and I worked at the law three nights in the 
week and all day Sunday. 

After eight months of this, the final examinations came 
around. They consumed a full week—from nine in the 
morning until five or six at night. I had no opportunity 
for review, so I rented a room near the law school to save 
the time going and coming and reviewed each night the 
subjects of examination for the following day. 

I did not sleep more than two hours any night in that 
week. On Thursday, while bolting a bit of luncheon, a 
fishbone stuck in my throat. Fearful of losing the result 
of my year s effort, I returned to my work, suffering much 
pain, and kept at it until Saturday night, when the 
examinations were concluded. The next day the surgeon 


RESERVE ENERGY 


153 


who removed the fishbone said there was no reason why I 
should not have had “a bad case of gangrene.” 

When I look back on that year’s work I don’t see how 
I stood it. I don’t see how I kept myself at it, day in, 
day out, month after month without rest, recreation or 
relief. I am sure I could never go through it again, even 
if I had the courage to undertake it. 

I ranked second in a class of one hundred and eighty 
in my law examinations, won the second prize for the 
best graduating thesis, received a complimentary vote for 
class oratorship, and much to my surprise was soon after 
offered an assistant superintendency of the public schools 
by the school board, who knew nothing of my studies and 
thought my work as a teacher worthy of promotion. 

It was not only the hardest year’s work but the best 
year’s work I ever did. IT EXEMPLIFIES MY IN¬ 
VARIABLE EXPERIENCE THAT THE MORE WE 
WANT TO DO THE MORE WE CAN DO AND THE 
BETTER WE CAN DO IT. 


The Why and How 

This is scientifically explained by Dr. S. J. 
Meltzer in “The Factors of Safety in Animal 
Structure and Animal Economy ’ ’: 

Of the supplies of energy to the animal we see that 
oxygen is luxuriously supplied. The supply of carbo- 
nydrates and fats is apparently large enough to keep up a 
steady luxurious surplus . . . The liberal ingestion of 
proteid might be another instance of the principle of 
abundance ruling the structure and energies of the animal 
body. There is, however, a theory that in just this single 
instance the minimum is meant by nature to be also the 
optimum. But it is a theory for the support of which 
there is not a single fact. On the contrary, some facts 
seem to indicate that Nature meant differently. Such 
facts are, for instance, the abundance of proteolytic 
enzymes in the digestive canal and the great capacity of 
the canal for absorption of proteids. Then there is the 
fact that proteid material is stored away for use in emer¬ 
gencies just as carbohydrates and fats are stored away. 
In starvation nitrogenous products continue to be elim¬ 
inated in the urine which, according to Folin, are derived 
from exogenous sources, that is from ingested proteid and 
not from broken down organ tissues. An interesting 
example of storing away of proteid for future use is seen 
in the muscles of the salmon before they leave the sea for 
the river to spawn. According to Mescher the muscles are 
then large and their productive organs are small. In the 
river where the animals have to starve, the reproductive 

154 


RESERVE ENERGY 


155 


organs become large, while the muscles waste away. Here 
in time of affluence the muscles store up nutritive material 
for the purpose of maintaining the life of the animal 
during starvation and of assisting in the function of 
reproduction. This instance seems to be quite a good 
illustration of the role which the factor of safety plays 
also in the function of the supply of the body with pro- 
teid food. The storing away of proteid like the storing 
away of glycogen and fat for the use in expected and unex¬ 
pected exceptional conditions is exactly like the super¬ 
abundance of tissue in an organ of animal or like an extra 
beam in the support of a building or a bridge—a factor 
of safety. 

It seems to me that the factors of safety have an im¬ 
portant place in the process of natural selection. Those 
species which are provided with an abundance of useful 
structure and energy and are prepared to meet many 
emergencies are best fitted to survive in the struggle for 
existence. 

Carrying the analogy one step further in ‘ ‘ The 
Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psy¬ 
chology,’ ’ Boris Sidis, puts forward the following 
interesting hypothesis :* 

Unusual combinations of circumstances, great radical 
changes of the environment, often unloosen the inhibi¬ 
tions, and, overstepping, or lowering the thresholds, 
release some of the reserve energy. Critical periods, great 
dangers, wars, revolutions, often make men rise to the 
occasion, so that apparently insignificant and worthless 

*“The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology,” by 
Boris Sidis. 



156 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


individuals display an energy unforeseen and unsuspected, 
and which makes of them heroes and heroines. There is 
a rise in intensity and a qualitative change in the stimuli, 
an unloosening of some of the inhibitions with a con¬ 
sequent release of some of the bound up reserve energy. 

In this respect wars and revolutions may be regarded 
as important factors in the manifestation of human 
potential energy. The Persian and Pelopennesian wars 
unloosened some of the energies of Greece, giving rise to 
great thinkers, scientists, and artists, having a lasting 
influence on the destiny of humanity. The constant wars 
and national misfortunes of the Jews released their reserve 
energy making of them a race of prophets, apostles and 
martyrs, deeply affecting the course of human civilization. 
The wars of the reformation opened a new era of free 
development of modern European civilization. The Eng¬ 
lish, American and French revolutions have released new 
supplies of energies and have opened a new arena for the 
free development of political, social and industrial forces. 
In our own times we meet with the example of the 
Japanese, who, under the strain of great national danger, 
have released a reserve energy unsuspected in races of the 
Mongolian stock. 

Keserve energy becomes manifested under the influence 
of radical changes in the environment, just as we have 
found that psycho-physiological systems react and start 
into function under the influence of special conditions and 
special appropriate qualitative stimuli. In the study of 
functional nervous and mental diseases, in the study of 
neurasthenia, or psychasthenia, hysteria, and insistent or 
recurrent mental states, one becomes more and more im¬ 
pressed with the fact that beyond the psycho-physiological 


RESERVE ENERGY 


157 


limits of energy, available for the habitual adjustments to 
the ordinary external conditions of life, there is a vast 
store of reserve energy whose depths one cannot gauge. 

To translate snch an experience into the lan¬ 
guage of the psychologist: What happens is that, 
owing to an emotional stimulus, the clogging “in¬ 
hibition” has been removed, the “threshold” has 
been lowered, and thereby the store of dormant 
energy made accessible to us. 

A Right and Wrong 

This same energy may be spent in a wrong 
direction to produce all kinds of physical inhar¬ 
mony as well as failure and troubles. In fact, 
most sickness springs from the wrong use of the 
power within, for, as Wm. S. Sadler, M. D., in 
“The Psychology of Faith and Fear” says: 

We recently saw a case where an unfortunate woman 
actually worried herself to death over the fear and dread 
of having cancer. Some physician had told her fourteen 
years previous that she had some symptoms of cancer, and 
ever since that time she had lived in constant terror of 
that disease. Post-mortem examination showed her to be 
absolutely free from cancer or any other organic disease, 
for that matter. 

The fear of disease is so often so intense and acute as 
really to cause one to fall a victim either to genuine infec¬ 
tion or a deceptive and imaginative counterfeit, as is so 
frequently the case in cholera, hydrophobia, and lockjaw. 


158 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Scientific men call this reserve power, potential 
energy. Each person has a vast amount of this 
potential energy over and above what he actually 
uses, but he has formed the habit of giving up 
before he has reached the second-wind level. 

A great authority has said that not one in ten 
thousand of us holds to the top pace in our men¬ 
tal activity, but that, even worse, the energy 
which we do not use is dispersed and scattered 
over a multitude of trivial interests instead of 
being focused upon some one possessing aim. 

Wherefore, when one is set upon regaining 
health by the power of the mind and directs his 
mental power (potential energy) toward the one 
ultimate goal, health, the scattering force is thus 
brought into a consummate whole, focused upon 
the given point, and health ensues. 

When one does not understand the concentra¬ 
tion of these energies for health, he of course is 
ill directed and becomes misspent and dissipated. 
What we purpose in the run of this volume is to 
give means and methods for the consummate con¬ 
centration of this power within toward your 
achieving health, success and happiness. 


RESERVE ENERGY 


159 


Prof. James’ Explanation 

The late Professor James of Harvard Univer¬ 
sity, often referred to as the founder of modern 
psychology, puts it in his own trenchant fashion, 
thus: 

On usual occasions we make a practice of stopping an 
occupation as soon as we meet the first effective layer, so 
to call it, of fatigue. We have then walked, played or 
worked enough, so we desist. That amount of fatigue is 
an efficacious obstruction on this side of which our usual 
life is cast. But if an unusual necessity forces us to press 
onward, a surprising thing occurs. The fatigue gets worse 
up to a certain, critical point, when gradually or suddenly 
it passes away and we are fresher than before. We have 
evidently tapped a level of new energy, masked until then 
by the fatigue obstacle usually obeyed. There may be 
layer after layer of this experience. A third or fourth 
wind may supervene. Mental activity shows this phenom¬ 
enon as well as physical, and in exceptional cases we 
may find beyond the very extremity of fatigue distress, 
amounts of ease and power that we never dreamed our¬ 
selves to own, sources of strength habitually not taxed at 
all, because habitually we never push through the obstruc¬ 
tion, never pass those early critical points. 

You may be so exhausted physically that to move a 
muscle seems impossible, or you may be exhausted men¬ 
tally and in the bitter pangs of despair, but the persistent 
will to push on - will tap the higher level of energy, 
yielding the glorious “Second Wind” and turning life 
into a song of triumph. 


160 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


How Kate Atkinson explains it: 

A Second Wind may come to you in various ways, but 
never without the push or endeavor of your own mind, 
backed by the Spirit. That push is never so effective as 
when you press against an obstruction, against ill health, 
adversity and unhappy environment. Right there you 
meet your fatigue obstacle which is really the source of 
the Second Wind, for it is only by means of overcoming 
great obstacles that you get the Second Wind. 

As I have just said, a Second Wind may come to you in 
various ways. It may, for instance, come in a sudden, 
inexplicable betterment in your affairs, or in your health, 
or in your peace of mind, or in your energy of accomplish¬ 
ment. Your world may have been upside down and in 
chaos, when suddenly everything will be righted, and 
just as you have desired it to be. This is an exact result 
of your mental push, instead of the streak of good luck 
you are inclined to call it. That mental push has tapped 
an energy level and in consequence a Second Wind has 
blown over your world, turning it right side up. I men¬ 
tion this because otherwise you might not recognize the 
event as attributable to a Second Wind. You will under¬ 
stand better how this can be when you realize that a Sec¬ 
ond Wind is a spiritual power or influence, acting intel¬ 
ligently for Humanity, when Humanity obeys its law. 

Reserve Power for Success and Health 

Just as one may be able to tap these different 
layers of reserve force and energy to accomplish 
business and professional feats, so the same 


RESERVE ENERGY 


161 


energy for healing may similarly be tapped time 
and time and time again. 

Such great academic psychologists as William 
James and Boris Sidis contended that we can he 
trained to use this latent power habitually to our 
great advantage. 

Dr. Sidis asserted it was by rousing this po¬ 
tential energy that the patients whom he treated 
were cured and further contended that it is actu¬ 
ally possible to train people to draw readily and 
helpfully on their hidden energies. Dr. Sidis' 
own words are: “We are confronted with the im¬ 
portant phenomenom of liberation of dormant 
reserve energy. 

“The patient feels the flood of fresh energies 
as a marvelous transformation, as a new light, as 
a new life, as something worth far more than life 
itself.'' 

This is the contention of all applied and prac¬ 
tical psychologists. We can train ourselves until 
we have formed the habit of continually tapping 
this hidden reservoir of energy. 


Getting the Mind Ready to Heal 

It is very necessary for one seeking health by 
mental means to know of this great reserve energy 
and power. By tapping this force are we healed. 

Have yon ever known a housewife whose regu¬ 
lar daily household duties and children to look 
after took all of her time, suddenly find her chil¬ 
dren, one by one, come down with a contagious 
disease? During this time she has continued to 
do her housework, wait upon her four or five sick 
children at all hours of the night, and give them 
the closest attention, which of itself alone would 
be a great strain upon both the physical and men¬ 
tal faculties. Perhaps she has had four weeks of 
this strenuous, extra hard work with the nervous 
tension exacting every ounce of strength, while 
the dear soul had not more than four or five hours 
sleep a day. Yet, she didn't break down. She 
was able to carry all of the extra work and sing! 
This, psychologists call abnormal stimulation. 

This reserve energy is manifested by children 
and adults in public school and college life. Very 
often the student will have fewer hours of sleep 
than usual, because of spending time at work or 
study. He also gets a second wind. He may be 

162 


RESERVE ENERGY 


163 


able to sleep but four or five hours a night, yet 
attend classes and study in between times. 

So each individual has within himself reserve 
energy and power. In most of our healings we 
tap this reserve energy. We unlock this reserve 
power—we reach the lower strata of mental and 
physical endurance and energy; this being tapped 
gives us that power within which effects the heal¬ 
ing. This power within is the God power—the 
God spirit. 

The God spirit is within all of us, manifesting 
itself daily. Many scarcely realize that they have 
the power within which is theirs. 

So it is not miraculous. It is not mysterious. 
It is not superstition when we arouse this power 
within and are healed thereby. 

By taking formulae and affirmations which we 
outline in this Volume and elsewhere (How to Put 
the Subconscious Mind to Work, Vol. 6 in this 
series) or by following the “Other Methods” in 
this series, we are operating a natural law, tap¬ 
ping the reservoir of energy within, which effects 
the healing. 

It is the God spirit which keeps us alive but we 
must help this God spirit by breathing. It is the 


164 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


God spirit which heals, but we must help this God 
spirit by doing our bit to help nature help God to 
heal us. 

One writer knows definitely of a woman badly 
afflicted with a form of hypochondria, imagining 
herself to be very sick and helpless. One morning 
her long-suffering husband picked her out of her 
bed, ran with her in his arms to the edge of a lake 
near which she lived and threw her into the water. 
The shock and her indignation so roused her latent 
energy that she scrambled out of the water, ran 
back to the house, and, was well ever after. 
Reserve Energy tapped! 


So Says a Physician 

One of the acknowledged medical authorities of 
our day says that when he was hut a lad he knew 
of a neurasthenic neighbor who had for years 
carefully nursed his imaginary ailments to the 
point where he was scarcely able to walk about 
the yard. He actually could not carry five pounds 
of sugar three blocks—from the grocery to his 
own home. One day his house was discovered on 
fire. In the excitement which followed he entirely 
forgot himself, absolutely forgot that he was a 
weak and disabled neurasthenic. He ran upstairs. 
And after throwing several looking glasses and 
the wash bowl and pitcher out of the window, ac¬ 
tually shouldered a monstrous black walnut 
clothes press, carried it downstairs single-handed, 
and safely deposited the same in the middle of 
the street. In the next fifteen minutes he carried 
out more furniture than any three men. 

Of course, he was completely ‘ 4 done up” after 
the fire was over. It required three days for him 
to recuperate; but when he recalled his prodigious 
feats of muscular strength and when the neigh¬ 
bors had laughed at him and joked about his mar- 


165 


166 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


velous performances, he was actually ashamed to 
return to his neurasthenic life. He got out of 
bed on the third day after the fire, and continued 
to improve from day to day, until within three 
months he was a well man, strong and hearty, 
without the slightest trace of neurasthenia. 
Reserve Energy tapped. 

The following is an extract from a letter quoted 
by Professor James as written by Colonel Baird- 
Smith after the siege of Delhi in 1857, to the suc¬ 
cess of which he largely contributed: 

My poor wife had some reason to think that war and 
disease, between them, had left very little of a husband 
to take under nursing when she got him again. An attack 
of scurvy had filled my mouth with sores, shaken every 
joint in my body and covered me all over with scars and 
livid spots, so that I was unlovely to look upon. A smart 
knock on the ankle joint from the splinter of a shell that 
burst in my face, in itself a mere bagatelle of a wound, 
had been of necessity neglected under the pressing and 
insistent calls upon me, and had grown worse and worse 
until the whole foot below the ankle became a black mass 
and seemed to threaten mortification. I insisted, how¬ 
ever, on being allowed to use it until the place was taken, 
mortification or no; and though the pain was sometimes 
horrible I carried my point and kept up to the last. 

On the day after the assault I had an unlucky fall on 
some bad ground, and it was an open question for a day 
or two whether I hadn’t broken my arm at the elbow. 


RESERVE ENERGY 


167 


Fortunately it turned out to be only a severe sprain, but 
I am still conscious of the wrench it gave me. To crown 
the whole pleasant catalogue, I was worn to a shadow by 
a constant diarrhoea and consumed as much opium as 
would have done credit to my father-in-law (Thomas De 
Quincey). 

However, thank God, I have a good share of Tapleyism 
in me and come out strong under difficulties. I think I 
may confidently say that no man ever saw me out of heart 
or ever heard a complaining word from me even when our 
prospects were gloomiest. We were sadly crippled by 
cholera, and it was almost appalling to me to find that out 
of twenty-seven officers I could only muster fifteen for the 
operations of the attack. However, it was done—and 
after it was done came the collapse. 

Don’t be horrified when I tell you that for the whole 
of the actual siege, and in truth for some little time before, 
I almost lived on brandy. Appetite for food I had none, 
but I forced myself to eat just sufficient to sustain life, 
and I had an incessant craving for brandy, as the strong¬ 
est stimulant I could get. Strange to say, I was quite 
unconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree. 

THE EXCITEMENT OF THE WORK WAS SO 
GREAT THAT NO LESSER ONE SEEMED TO 
HAVE ANY CHANCE AGAINST IT, AND I CER¬ 
TAINLY NEVER FOUND MY INTELLECT 
CLEARER OR MY NERVES STRONGER IN MY 
LIFE. 

Such is the profound resourcefulness and enduring 
power of the human mind. 

Reserve Energy tapped! 


168 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


What people need is the impulse or some strong 
desire that can carry them into the sea of abnor¬ 
mal stimulation, over the waves and billows of 
the inharmonies of life. So when people are sick, 
what they need is some desire, be this desire 
what it may. It may express itself in work, in 
service, in love, in joy, or faith. 

When the human mind is stimulated, strength¬ 
ened, energized by the divine it then becomes the 
most powerful agent in both moral and physical 
recovery. 


Prof. Patrick's Experience 

Professor Patrick of the State University of 
Iowa conducted certain experiments upon three 
young men by requiring them to remain awake 
for four successive days and nights. He then 
allowed them to go to sleep and ordered that they 
be not disturbed until they awoke themselves. 
The purpose of the experiments was to determine 
just how much time nature required to recuperate 
from the long wakeful state. The students were 
allowed to sleep themselves out in order to awake 
thoroughly rested. The one who was last to 
awake slept only one third longer than customary 
night's sleep. 


RESERVE ENERGY 


169 


This shows that if we are awake four times as 
long as usual, we do not have to sleep four times 
as long, but four times as sound. Latent energy 
within! Reserved energy tapped! 

Let’s use it! All can! YOU CAN! 

Get the belief of Waldo P. Warren: 

Much of the strength within men is hidden, awaiting 
an occasion to reveal it. The head of a department in a 
great manufacturing concern severed his connection with 
the firm, his work falling upon a young man of twenty- 
five years. The young man rose to the occasion, and in a 
very short time was conceded to he the stronger executive 
of the two. He had been with the concern for several 
years, and was regarded as a bright fellow, but his marked 
success was a surprise to all who knew him—even to him¬ 
self. 

The fact is, the young man had that ability all the 
time and didn’t know it; and his employers didn’t know 
it. He might have been doing greater things all along if 
there had been the occasion to reveal his strength. 

Do you employers and superior officers in business 
realize how much of this hidden strength there is in your 
men? Perhaps a word from you, giving certain men more 
scope, would liberate that ability for the development of 
both your business and your men. 

Do you workers know your own strength? Are you 
working up to your capacity? Or are you accepting the 
limits which the circumstances place about you?' 


170 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Self-Preservation 

Self-preservation is the strongest instinct in 
human nature. We need not argue the case that 
this offers the strongest auto-suggestion known to 
man—the will to live. This law also renders it 
much easier for the suggestion to reach and he 
operated by the subconscious mind for restoration 
of health than for the wrecking of health. 

That the instinct for self-preservation works 
for our physical harmony and health; that by its 
operation normal conditions can he restored with 
greater ease and certainty, all things Being equal, 
than abnormal conditions can be induced, are 
axioms the truth of which no one will question. 

So it is easier to arouse this reserve energy 
within for one’s healing when we understand the 
workings of the mind than one may think who has 
taken but a superficial glance at “The Power of 
Mind to Heal.” Most people, barring accidents, 
fright, panic, have had to spend considerable time 
in holding negative thoughts to produce sickness 
or their troubles. Generally speaking, if it took 
as much time on the positive side to correct our 
irregular thinking and living as it does to cause 
the irregularities, it would take most of us until 


RESERVE ENERGY 


171 


doomsday before we could effect a healing or 
change our conditions. 

This is where the strong instinct of self-preser¬ 
vation comes into play. The will to live is the most 
powerful element of volition. When we appeal to 
our better self to live, this instinct is aroused 
much more easily than the desire to die. Hence 
we see how easy after all it is for the mind to heal. 

It takes some people forty or fifty years of 
wrong thinking and wrong living and continual 
wrong suggestions before they become ill or fail. 
If we had to devote an equal length of time to 
holding a positive thought, the opposite to that 
which has caused our inharmonies, no one would 
tackle the job of trying to induce the mind to heal. 
Wrong living of forty years’ standing may, there¬ 
fore, be corrected overnight by right thinking and 
proper suggestions. We do not, of course, make 
the dogmatic statement that every person can be 
healed within twenty-four hours. Indeed, we have 
shown elsewhere that more people are healed by 
a continued right mental attitude covering a space 
of weeks, months and in some cases, years, than 
those who are healed instantaneously, or in a 
short time, although I have had hundreds of peo¬ 
ple in my classes who have been healed instan- 


172 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


taneously or within twenty-four hours. This is a 
positive proof and a profound inspiration to those 
who are seeking healing, that if we have been 
twenty, thirty or forty years making ourselves 
sick, the self-preservation instinct, the strongest 
in man, can be easily aroused to tap the reserve 
energy and allow the healing to take place. 

We mean right thinking coupled with complying 
to the natural hygienic laws of living. 


Culture Versus Superstition 

The ignorant and superstitious are often healed 
more easily than the enlightened, the cultured and 
the refined, because the former are more credu¬ 
lous, do not reason from cause to effect, but jump 
at a conclusion, especially where shrouded in mys¬ 
tery and religious parlance. 

The main thing, as pointed out by Doctor Wil¬ 
liam S. Sadler, the noted physician-author, is 
faith, and if a person can have explicit faith and 
expectant attention, the whole being will be gov¬ 
erned by this fixity of thought. 

Religiously speaking, the emotional experience uncon¬ 
sciously opens the soul to the Spirit, which enters into the 
whole being, just as the warm sunlight penetrates the very 
fibre of the plant. It is the Spirit that performs the 
mental part of the cure, not the personal thought or faith. 
The human part consists in becoming receptive, in with¬ 
drawing the consciousness from self and physical sensa¬ 
tion and becoming absorbed in the expected cure. The 
personal fears and wrong thoughts have stood in the way 
and barred the door where the Spirit sought to enter. 
The new direction of mind changes all this, and makes 
way for the Spirit. It is a re-directing of the will; and 
in the wise use of the will, as we have seen, lies the great¬ 
est human power, while its misuse is the most potent 
cause of trouble. 


173 


174 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Just as an insane person under certain abnor¬ 
mal stimulation can twist an iron bar that five 
normal men could not bend, so the reserve energy 
in superstitious faith has double, treble—aye, 
quadruple the power of the ordinary mind that is 
critical, skeptical, practical and reasoning. 

This does not close the way, of course, to the 
healing of people who reason from cause to effect, 
but they may have to take a longer time to create 
a right 44 atmosphere’’ and a psychological state of 
mind for their healing. 

It is the cultured, educated and thinking man 
who must direct this reserve force within all of 
us. It is easy to see how this superstitious energy 
may be directed into channels of all kinds of suf¬ 
fering, lack, limitation and sickness. In India and 
China, for instance, they believe that all sickness 
comes by devils and if they can jab a pin into 
their rheumatic knee joints and let out the devil 
that causes the pain, they may be healed. The 
thousand and one superstitious ideas springing 
from religion, such as cause mothers to cast their 
babies into the Ganges Eiver to appease the wrath 
of the gods, or to throw their infants into a vol¬ 
cano that the plague may be stopped, are all the 


RESERVE ENERGY 


175 


result of this pent-up reserve energy, let loose 
upon the credulity of the heathen. 

And, at that, we don’t have to go to India or 
China for some heathenish practices. There are 
plenty of them in the old theology around us in 
America today. 

It is the intelligent, enlightened minds possessed 
by teachers and followers of this modern move¬ 
ment of psychology who give an explanation of 
the faith that is in them that are going to rescue 
the mental healing movement of the day from the 
superstitious shroud of yesterday. It is they who 

From the point of view of intellectual activity, 
it is difficult to find the inner center of anything 
and realize the power within. The intellect is apt 
to raise objections and to seek all the reasons for 
such a proceeding. Up until very recently the 
reasons given for mental healing in many sources 
and cults have been a most jumbled affair. They 
really were more or less in the dark. They had 
healings, but they knew not why, and so we have 
run the whole gamut of unreasonable “reason” 
are putting it upon a reasonable foundation so that 
the masses as well as the enlightened will un¬ 
derstand and be saved to success, health and 
happiness. 


176 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


in explaining how the mind heals. We have gone 
all the way from denying the existence of sin and 
matter to the religious finality of thus saith the 
Lord and it is done. Done by the power of God, 
and that is all anybody should expect to know. 

Positive Versus Negative 

The positive thought always has quicker re¬ 
sults than the negative. The health thought is 
more quickly answered. It probably has taken 
long years for one of the four reasons why people 
are sick to have produced the sickness, by wrong 
thinking, by taking possession of the subconscious 
unconsciously or by repeated poisonous chemicali¬ 
zation. The natural laws that create and sustain 
the body are divine laws and when man gets in 
tune with these laws of the divine, he is calling 
into action the strongest natural forces of his 
being. 

It is natural to be well. It is unnatural to be 
sick. Therefore, to think positive thoughts which 
operate the natural laws is to put into effect most 
quickly the latent power in man, the reserve 
energy within. 

It matters not whether the patient looks upon 
healing and understands it from the standpoint of 
science, or whether he believes in the old-time 


RESERVE ENERGY 


177 


faith of the gospel days, when it was thought that 
by touching the handkerchief of the apostles a 
healing could be effected—and it was. 

Man Is Spiritual, Not Physical 

We have gone into considerable detail in ex¬ 
plaining that it is not the spiritual in man which 
is sick but the physical,* that the spiritual body 
permeates every part of the physical body, that 
this spiritual within man is the God spirit, and as 
God could not be sick, neither can the God spirit 
in man be sick—when man is sick it is the physical 
body. 

While it is not necessary for everyone to have 
the belief that it is God dwelling in man, his one¬ 
ness with God, which heals him, yet, in the great 
majority of cases, especially if the person has been 
religiously trained to know and believe that the 
divinity which dwells in each life is the God spirit 
and that the tie which links us with God and 
makes us at one with the Infinite, are the greatest 
and strongest suggestions that the human mind 
can receive. To teach this should be the main 
object of mental therapeutists, but, I say, it is not 
necessary that all people reach this realization, 

*In Practical Psychology and Sex Life, Chapter 35. 



178 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


for we have had hundreds of people healed in our 
classes and practice cured by vibrations, the 
silence, and other methods, who have not professed 
to hold any religious convictions. The motorman 
who runs the street car does not necessarily have 
to be an inventor, a master mechanic, or have any 
knowledge at all of how electricity is generated. 
Yet, when he takes hold of the controller which 
operates the current, the street car moves. 

It is, therefore, the case with all human beings, 
that when put in harmony with the laws of life, 
whether they understand these laws or not, 
whether they are religiously inclined or not, the 
universal current of health surges through them 
and they are made well. 

We have had men and women healed in our 
classes who have lived immoral lives until fifty 
and sixty years of age, who could not profess re¬ 
ligion but who could relax, let go, and believe that 
the Omnipotent power which made the world had 
Omnipotence in relation to their bodies. Although 
they could not profess religion, they could accept 
or believe in some power back of all, which was 
unlimited. When we cease reasoning, stop argu¬ 
ing and questioning, and can wholly let go, 
whether we are Christian or Mohammedan, Jew 


RESERVE ENERGY 


179 


or Gentile, bound or free, tbe law operates just 
the same. It is the power of God, as it is the life 
and brains back of all which effect the healing. 

So, notwithstanding every individual may not 
be well enough versed in the laws of physics and 
chemistry to be able to analyze the poisonous 
effects of negative emotional states, yet, if he 
indulge in high emotional states, fits of temper, 
holds secret thoughts of harm to others, grudges, 
suppressed ambitions, envy, jealousy, self-pity, 
selfishness, anger or hate, the poisonous chemicali¬ 
zation takes place just the same. By taking the 
thoughts opposite to these negative ones, nature 
readjusts itself by setting free a chemicalization 
which acts as an antidote to the poisoning 
thoughts. 


Apostolic Healing 

When the apostles went about healing people by 
laying on of hands and by blessing handkerchiefs, 
they aroused the expectancy of healing and stimu¬ 
lated faith to such an extent that the power within 
effected the healing. Acts 19:11 and 12. 

And God wrought special miracles by the hands of 
Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick, 
handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from 
them and the evil spirits went out of them. 

In Acts 5: 15 and 16 we read that people were 
healed by the shadow of the apostle Peter falling 
upon them. 

Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the 
streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the 
least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow 
some of them. 

There came also a multitude out of the cities round¬ 
about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them 
which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were 
healed every one. 

Jesus said, “ I do nothing of myself. But as my 
Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” 
Jesus didn’t claim to be the healer. He said, ‘ ‘ For 


180 


RESERVE ENERGY 


181 


I do always those things that please Him.” St. 
John 8: 28 and 29. The spoken word of health 
aroused within the patient the expectancy and the 
belief—faith—in healing and the God-power with¬ 
in which responded to the spoken word of the 
Master made them well. 

There is no essential difference between the 
Suggestion given by others and the Auto-Sugges¬ 
tion given by oneself to oneself. The healing 
power is in the mind of the patient, and whether 
it is called forth by his own Auto-Suggestion or 
the Suggestion of a healer matters not.* 

Scriptural Basis for Healing 

Jesus announced it was by the spirit of God 
that he cast out devils. That spirit is just as 
potent for healing today as ever. For God is the 
same yesterday, today and forever—the God 
spirit within. 

“The works that I do I do in my Father’s 
name.” “It is God that worketh in you both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure.” It will be 


*For a study, How to Take an Opposite Thought, or Sugges¬ 
tion and Auto-Suggestion, see Vol. 6 and Vol. 3 of this series. 



182 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


remembered by the metaphysician that “God is 
over all, through all and in all. ’ ’ A person want¬ 
ing help will ever keep before the mind’s eye the 
conscious thought that God is a perfect being, and 
in him is no sickness, no limitation, no worry, no 
fear. God is perfect health in us, perfect peace in 
us, perfect life in us.* 

Faith in God sets in motion unlimited forces 
which can build and rebuild within the human 
body every disordered organ or inharmonious 
condition. 

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, be¬ 
lieving, ye shall receive. Matt. 21-22. 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in 
Christ Jesus.” “He thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation 
and humbled himself. ’ ’ Eealize that it is God in 
you that is the only reality; that matter is tem¬ 
poral and therefore anywhere, that spirit is the 
only changeless reality, that all that really is is 
the spirit in expression, that things rise from 
spirit and return to it, that things indicate merely 
your inherent oneness with spirit, that spirit is 


h See Practical Psychology <md Sex Life, Vol. 3, in this series. 



RESERVE ENERGY 


183 


the master over all matter and all its claims, that 
matter conforms with your realization of spirit. 
Boldly then, assert that all is spirit, and yonr 
dominion over matter will be assured. 

Man a Social Being 

It seems to be in the very nature of man, 
whether it is from instinct or from acquired habit, 
to seek external aid in the hours of his affliction. 
He has been trained to call for a doctor for a diag¬ 
nosis, and to see something for his money. Thus 
the patient gets away more and more from the real 
background of healing, namely, the power that he 
has within himself. The more we rely upon drugs 
and other outside agencies rather than on God 
and the energy within, the farther away is the 
salvation of healing. 

Probably every sickness known to man can be 
produced in the body by thinking, and what has 
been produced by thinking can be erased by the 
same spiritual force—namely, thought. That much 
of our sickness springs from unfriendly sugges¬ 
tions, I am sure the reader already believes. 

A famous physician friend of mine had as a 
patient a woman who had suffered an attack of 


184 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


acute indigestion some eight years before. He 
mentioned* the following to me: She had since then 
been a constant sufferer of the most; obstinate 
form of indigestion. Different specialists had tried 
to cure her, but in vain. Her mind was ever on 
her stomach and no conversation was complete 
without telling her troubles. It was her chief 
stock in trade. My physician friend resorted to 
the customary analysis and chemical examination 
of the contents of her stomach, together with the 
usual test meal for the purpose of making a stom¬ 
ach diagnosis. This revealed a curious fact, that 
there was little or nothing actually wrong with the 
patient's digestion, but all the same she had acute 
indigestion. Had it with the tenacity of eight 
years' standing. The only explanation the doctor 
could offer was that hers was a psychic (mental) 
condition. 

Whatever sickness the mind creates can be 
erased. 

Our finger nails, for instance, if made of steel, 
would soon wear out and have to be replaced, but 
being made by the evergrowing Spirit of Energy, 
they grow faster than they are worn. Thus a 
marvelous activity is constantly going on within 


RESERVE ENERGY 


185 


us, asleep or awake, of which we are unconscious 
—this is the work of the subconscious. And when 
we remember that the subconscious mind is amen¬ 
able to suggestion, that is, that it works upon the 
suggestions given to it, we see how it is that the 
body can be made well by thinking. Whatever pic¬ 
ture the subconscious mind holds it completes in 
reality. If it pictures the body well, whole and 
complete, that is the way the body becomes. If, on 
the other hand, the subconscious mind has had 
various suggestions of ill health, heredity, aches 
and pains, paroxysms and fits, that is what the 
subconscious mind follows, and, of course, sickness 
ensues. Think sickness and we get sickness. 
Think health and we have health! 

Sickness is caused by wrong thinking. Dwell¬ 
ing upon wrong conditions, worrying about finan¬ 
cial troubles, grieving over lost ones or domestic 
inharmonies, meditating upon the gross, sordid 
and negative side of life, when the habitual train 
of thought becomes a subconscious condition, 
makes one unwell. Thus we say it is a subcon¬ 
scious habit. 

All habits are subconscious conditions. Just as 
wrong thinking may create a subconscious habit of 
sickness, so can right thinking, dwelling on the 


186 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


positive, optimistic, creative side of life, create a 
habit of health.* 

The following chapter will give the reader the 
foundations upon which the conscious mind may 
build to reach the subconscious for health, success 
and happiness. 

*The subconscious mind in its many branches has been taken 
up in various volumes in this series. 

For a study of the subconscious to produce health, we refer 
the reader to Volume 3 and Volume 6 of this series. 



P ART I II 

WHAT THE PATIENT HAS TO DO 


During my twenty odd years as a healer and on 
the lecture platform hundreds of thousands of 
people have come to my campaigns and attended 
my classes. One of the strangest evidences that 
the ‘‘flesh ' 9 is weak for helping itself, although 
the spirit may be willing, lies in the fact that the 
majority of these thousands expected the healer 
to do it all. They come to he healed, but they 
want it brought to pass in some strange, veiled, 
mystic, miraculous manner, in which they have 
no active part. 

They seeking help; they want an instantaneous 
cure and are willing to receive it, provided God 
or some “miraculous” power will make them 
well without any effort on their part. This is one 
of the biggest mistakes the average person makes 
in the realm of metaphysical healing. 

No Miracles 

God works no miracles—He never has and He 
never will. The only way that anyone can be 
healed is by putting himself in harmony with the 
natural laws of life—health. 


187 




188 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


This is not saying that people do not have in¬ 
stantaneous healings. They do. Thousands 
have been instantaneously healed at my meetings. 
In some cases we know why they have been 
healed; in other cases it is a mystery. This 
means simply that we have not yet discovered all 
of the laws that make for health. The law of 
aviation could have been operated by our pro¬ 
genitor, Adam, if he had known how. The auto¬ 
mobile and the internal combustion gas engine 
could have been used by our forebears before the 
days of 1776 if they had happened upon it. There 
are many things that we have yet to learn in the 
realm of mental and spiritual healing, but we may 
be assured that whenever a healing takes place 
—whether we understand how it has been done or 
not—there has been the operation of a natural 
God law. One of these days we shall know more 
about the power of mind to heal than we know 
now. We have enough laws now to work for 
healing—laws which so inspire and lift us up 
that, when a healing takes place which we do not 
wholly understand, instead of calling it mira¬ 
culous we should use our own intelligence to find 
out why and how the “miracle’' took place. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 189 


All Law is Natural Law 

I say there never have been any miracles and 
there never will be. Nothing but an infantile, 
stone age, primitive mind conld ever have con¬ 
ceived the idea that this world is run by a God 
who performs miracles. The power back of all 
life—whether we call it God, Pan, Zens, Nature, 
Evolution or X—is an orderly principle of life. 
Our idea of God becomes not only reasonable and 
sensible, but Godly when we get the conception 
that God is the same “yesterday, today and for¬ 
ever”; that He has no favored few for whom He 
will work miracles. If He did what a madhouse 
of a world we should be in! One of the favored 
sons of God would want to put some natural laws 
out of commission thereby to browbeat his fellow- 
man out of money. Another favored son of the 
Most High would use a miracle to heal some and 
let the others who needed healing remain in their 
physical agony. An agricultural son of the 
Eternal, living on the north side of the Mason 
and Dixon line, would perform a miracle to have 
rain, although his half-brother, equally favored 
by the great Creator, living south of the line, just 
across the fence, so to speak, did not want rain. 
So they both would perform their miracles to 


190 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


satisfy their own human, personal, immediate 
needs, and would get into all kinds of mixups. 

If God were a ‘ < miraculous ’ ’ God and there 
were miracle workers among the sons of men, one 
fellow would “pull” one miraculous stunt against 
some other miracle man; the two would have a 
clash, and the whole works would go to pot. If 
we suspended the law of gravitation for a minute, 
the whole solar system would go up in smoke. 
Nay, God never did work miracles. 

There are things God cannot do, even though 
we believe in the omnipotent power of the Eternal 
Principle of life. For instance, God cannot make 
a train go forward and backward at the same 
time. God cannot make a century plant over 
night. The life-giving energy of the universe has 
established certain physical, mental and spiritual 
laws. These laws are never suspended. They 
never can he and, more, they never will be. 

To make a century plant requires fresh air, 
oxygen, sunshine, showers and time. God never 
goes against His own laws to make anything. He 
always conforms with the laws which, in His 
divine wisdom, are made. 

Christ and Miracles 

But, the reader may say, how about the 
miracles that Christ performed? My answer is 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO HO 191 


exactly the same. Christ never did perform 
miracles, and He never made claim that He did. 
“My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” 
Wherever in the New Testament Christ is re¬ 
ferred to as having performed miracles, any 
honest student who understands the language in 
which the New Testament was written—Greek— 
will tell the truth-seeker (not one weighted down 
by the bigotry of theological teaching) this: that 
each and every place where the narrative of 
Christ says He performed miracles, a translation 
closer to the original text is that Christ went 
about doing marvelous things. There is nothing 
miraculous about that. 

In every campaign we hold, and in every class 
we conduct, the blind see, the deaf hear, or the 
lame walk, the discouraged are uplifted, the 
broken-hearted are healed and the captives are 
set free. There is nothing miraculous about it. 
To the unlettered, to the uncultured, to the super¬ 
stitious or primitive mind, it is miraculous. To 
the thinking and educated person it is nothing 
more or less than natural laws which, when set in 
operation, appear to bring wondrous and marvel¬ 
ous things to pass. 

To return to the theme of the opening para¬ 
graph whoever presents himself to a mental prac- 


192 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


titioner or spiritual healer should realize there 
are certain requirements upon the patient and 
certain things which the patient must do himself 
in order to help the practitioner help him to help 
God to heal him. 

I believe that in every single instance Jesus 
not only required hut demanded that the patient, 
the one seeking health, do something himself. 
Either must he “Go, wash in the pool of Silom”; 
or “Show thyself to the Priest and offer a gift”; 
or, “As thou hast believed so be it done unto 
thee”; meaning that the patient must do his part 
in having faith. Aye, Christ almost demanded 
that the patient must do something. “Believe ye 
that I am able to do this!” And the two blind 
men said, “Yea, Lord.” Then touched he their 
eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it unto 
you. ’ ’ 

If the Greatest Healer of the Ages expected 
that those seeking help should do something them¬ 
selves, it is not too much for the modern healer 
not only to request, but also to demand that the 
one seeking assistance must likewise contribute 
some effort. 

But the honest seeker after truth, who has not 
yet reached that plane of consciousness quite to 
understand how the body can be healed without 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO HO 193 


medicine, pills and powders, may wonder how he 
can he healed when he does not understand. 

What is Expected of the Patient 

Such a one should remember that if a physician 
is called in and writes a prescription, concocted 
of near-poisons, in a language even the drug 
clerk will have difficulty in interpreting, the sick 
one does not have to understand how the medicine 
works to make him well. He merely acts upon the 
assumption that the doctor knows and, without 
question, wonder, remonstrance or doubt, he fol¬ 
lows the directions of the good physician. So, 
with mental science. More people are healed who 
do not understand how they are healed than is 
the case with those who understand how the mind 
works. The principle is the same, that of faith. 
The sick man has faith in the physician and his 
medicine which arouses power within, to combat 
disease and, in spite of the poison administered 
the subject becomes well. So, if the one, seeking 
a cure with the help of a mental practitioner, will 
have as much faith in the mental therapeutist as 
another has in the family physician, the chances 
for his healing are increased. Moreover he has 
not the effects of any poisonous drugs to over¬ 
come. So, if the one seeking health by mental 


194 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


aid will play as fair with his practitioner as the 
one seeking health from the physician, the 
chances for his healing by mental aid are consid¬ 
erably greater than by material. 

Mental or spiritual healing is, of course, for 
those who have reached a certain plane of con¬ 
sciousness—for, in short, those who are ready. 

If people are not ready it is better not to try 
to “convert” them, but let them gradually come 
into this higher understanding. The religions of 
the world go out of their way to get “converts.” 

Mahomet sought to convert the world (and did 
convert many millions) but, after other Moham¬ 
medan methods of converting the heathen were 
exhausted and conversion was not confessed, then 
the last element of persuasion was resorted to— 
a choice between slavery and death. 

What indeed could be simpler than Islam’s pro¬ 
gram of conversion: ‘ ‘ The Koran, the sword or 
slavery! ’ 9 

Every religion with the exception of some 
modern cults, has started out to convert other 
people. If you do not believe it go through the 
history of the Christian religion the last one hun¬ 
dred years in our own country, beginning with 
the revival known as “The Great Awakening” to 
the last hell-fire and brimstone spellbinder, and 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 195 


you get some idea of the extent to which the Chris¬ 
tian religion has gone to convert people to its way 
of thinking. The “Evangelist” and his ilk are 
but one step above the Mohammedans inasmuch 
as they do not kill the infidel; but they do the next 
magnanimous thing, they send him to hell. It is 
either “Come our way and go to heaven, or go 
your way and go to hell.” 

All that the mental or spiritual therapeutist 
asks or should ask of the patient is that the 
patient have as much faith in Deity—in the power 
of God—to heal as he has faith in medicine and 
the power of the physician to heal. Give God an 
equal chance and the race is won. 

And yet, as we have stated elsewhere, the 
healer should remember there should be no dog¬ 
matic statement made as to what the patient must 
consider God to be. If the patient considers God 
a personal being, as the Christian religion has 
taught, well and good—let him hold to his idea. 
Or, if he believes God to be spirit, the same as 
Jesus, let him have his idea. Don’t try to con¬ 
vert him from what he believes. Or, if the 
patient thinks God is nothing more than nature or 
evolution, the modern advanced practitioner will 
not try to convert the one seeking health to his 
particular notion of God. All that is needed is 


196 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


that the patient have faith in something. True, 
he can be healed by having faith in the practi¬ 
tioner only, and thousands are: but it is very evi¬ 
dent that if a person can have faith in Deity, of 
some kind, there will be a greater, more forceful, 
pregnant and powerful faith exerted. The high¬ 
est faith in all of man’s existence is faith in God. 
Jesus was right when he enjoined upon his dis¬ 
ciples, “Have faith in God.” 


The Ideal Patient 

The ideal patient is one who desires help, has 
an open and receptive mind and is free from ad¬ 
verse or antagonistic suggestions from his own 
mind or the minds of others. 

The patient must always hear in mind that his 
success for health depends upon his attitude of 
mind—his power of self-control. 

Dr. A. J. Sanderson says: 

In the maintenance of health and the cure of disease 
cheerfulness is a most important factor. 

Its power to do good like a medicine is not an artificial 
stimulation of the tissues, to be followed by reaction 
and greater waste, as is the case with many drugs; 
but the effect of cheerfulness is an actual life-giving in¬ 
fluence through a normal channel, the results of which 
reach every part of the system. It brightens the eye, makes 
ruddy the countenance, brings elasticity to the step, and 
promotes all the inner forces by which life is sustained. 
The blood circulates more freely, the oxygen comes to its 
home in the tissues, health is promoted, and disease is 
banished. 

C. Franklin Leavitt, internationally famous 
physician analyst, has expressed this in 4 ‘Are You 
You?” in a beautiful way as follows: 


197 


198 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


How Do I Begin? 

By this time you are probably ready to say: 

“All right. Fm convinced. I believe in the power of 
thought. I believe in suggestion. You’ve made me see 
I’ve got a lot more in me than I ever imagined. I want 
to get it out of me. How do I begin ?” 

My answer is, “You don't begin —yet!—not until you’ve 
thought a good deal farther than the beginning—not until 
you’ve thought clear through the whole process of mental 
re-education, from A to Z. And then you begin at A, 
and not somewhere around L or M or P or Q. 

I say this because I have found that nine out of ten 
who go in for this thing plunge into it with very little 
idea of what it is they are trying to do or what they are 
going to come up against. Consumed by a great desire to 
get hold of all these promised benefits as soon as possible, 
they jump enthusiastically right into the middle of the 
stream (to change the figure), evidently expecting to be 
carried smoothly and easily to their goal. After a while 
they begin to wonder why it is they are having such a hard 
time getting anywhere. Many of them never do get any¬ 
where! What else could you expect when they haven’t 
familiarized themselves in advance with the sands, shoals 
and quicksands, when they don’t know much about swim¬ 
ming, anyway, and haven’t developed enough strength, as 
yet, to swim against the current? 

How do you prepare for a long, important, difficult jour¬ 
ney? Do you just rush over to the station at the last mo¬ 
ment, without any baggage or anything, and buy a ticket 
and get on the first train, going just anywhere? 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 199 


Why, no. First of all yon know where yon are going 
and how you are going to get there. You understand your 
route, you plan that trip in detail. You equip yourself 
with that which you know you will need. 

How does a man go about building a bridge, putting 
through a big business deal, writing a book, or carving a 
career? He equips himself, he educates himself, he pre¬ 
pares, he understands. He knows that slipshod, haphazard 
methods will get him nowhere—that he has to go about the 
thing thoroughly and scientifically. 

The fellow who isn’t willing to do a little studying, a 
little thinking, a little preparing, in advance, for this 
business of self-development may just as well pitch this 
book out of the window right now. All the desire in the 
world won’t carry you forward unless you employ also— 
common-sense. 

This series of books is giving thirty-two dif¬ 
ferent methods of mental healing. We do not 
intend to anticipate or overlap in this volume, but 
following the idea expressed here, Helen Rhodes 
Wallace has expressed it in her fashion, thus: 

Speak to it with love and power: Body, I lift you out 
of condemnation, no longer do I call you sick or weak: 

I praise you: I tell you the Truth of yourself: You are 
strength: You are Health: You are Youth, Beauty and 
symmetry: Every cell in you shall have my deep desire 
to restore and refresh you. Body: You are made in the 
image and likeness of Rod, whole, radiant with life. I 
keep my eye fixed upon the inner glory so shall I transform 
you into the divine likeness. This truth shall set you free. 


200 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Affirmations for Health 

With every breath I am drawing into my body 
health, life, peace and prosperity. 

God is breathing into me the breath of life and 
I am a living sonl. 

With every breath I am drawing into my body 
health, life, vigor and strength. 

With every breath I am drawing into the 
depths of my soul, peace, poise, rest and love. 

With every breath I am drawing love, harmony, 
joy and happiness from the Divine Source of the 
Universe. 

I am a part of the Divine Life, and with every 
breath I am drawing into my being the very soul 
of Divinity. 

“Life, force and spirit, universal health and 
energy are now flowing through me and I am 
well. *’ 

“lam whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, 
harmonious and happy.’’ 

Winbigler, in “ Suggestion, ” continuing this 
line of argument says: 

Receptive Mind 

If the possibility of suggestion can be aided by the sub- 
consciousness, greater effects and quicker results follow. 
If the mind is receptive in the sense of carrying out sug¬ 
gestions, many marvellous consequences will be produced. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 201 


We do not say that no results follow when the subject does 
not unhesitatingly accept the suggestion. There is doubt¬ 
less some effect secured, hut the best results occur when the 
subject quietly, intentionally and willingly receives the 
suggestions given. It is possible also gradually to help 
one who at first may be opposed to hetero-suggestion, but 
when certain results are seen by him, he yields and secures 
beneficial effects. 

WILLING. This condition applies to the carrying out 
of the suggestions. This state of mind implies faith on the 
part of the subject. If the subject has no faith in the 
operator, all that may be suggested will be inert to a great 
degree. Jesus, when he was doing such wonderful things, 
came into a place where unbelief made his work ineffective, 
or largely so. The en rapport condition between practi¬ 
tioner and subject is conditioned on faith, and willingness 
on the part of the subject to receive what is suggested or 
offered. All orators, professional men and especially 
physicians, have experienced the paralyzing effect of doubt 
and unwillingness to receive their statements, by certain 
people, and they are, under those circumstances, generally 
quite desirous of getting away from that kind of environ¬ 
ment. 

Where faith exists, a willing spirit naturally follows. 
If the patient is in an expectant attitude, and the operator 
has won the confidence of the subject, willingness naturally 
results. Suggestions may take effect when repeated fre¬ 
quently, even if there is but little faith and corresponding 
little willingness to act on them. Eventually, the sub¬ 
conscious mind may so assert its power that the conscious 
mind must yield its opposition because of the results seen. 


202 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


but the best results and speediest effects will be gotten in 
an atmosphere of faith and acquiescence of the mind of 
the subject to the suggestions given. 

Willingness to receive suggestions of the operator by 
the subject is a necessary condition in order to accomplish 
far-reaching consequences in the life of the subject. 

The operator therefore will have a much larger 
degree of success if the patient gives his consent 
and will work in harmony with the operator. 

The patient should, moreover, have faith and 
believe in the operator—give obedience to sug¬ 
gestion and follow directions given implicitly. If 
the patient finds that he cannot do this, it is high 
time that he change his practitioner. 


Willingness 

F. W. Sears, in “How To Give Treatments ,’ 9 
corroborates the author ’s idea in regard to what 
the patient has to do, namely, 

There are cases that will take longer to heal than 
others. Why ? There are two reasons. One is how thor- 
onghly the negative habit has become fixed upon the cell 
consciousness; and the other is the willingness or desire, 
or lack of it, on the part of the patient to do that which 
we tell him; also his understanding and power of applica¬ 
tion. Many times a patient is willing, but his ability to 
understand and apply these truths is weak or lacking. It 
takes sometime to teach him the new vision and how to 
apply it. The old habit is so thoroughly fixed in his cell 
consciousness that although he affirms and works with us 
for days, and perhaps weeks, and sometimes even months, 
the old habit is so fixed in the cell c.onsciousness of his 
body and environment that it takes a long, long time for 
it to be displaced. But don’t worry, don’t get anxious; 
persistent application can and will displace the old habit 
of disease. 

And yet, as stated at the beginning of part II 
of this volume, many people are healed without 
knowing how it takes place. The healer himself 
would probably be puzzled to account for some of 
his cures. For instance: in my great campaigns, 
where three thousand to six thousand people are 
in attendance upon the lectures there are prob- 


203 


204 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


ably two to three thousand in a negative frame of 
mind. They have come to see what it is all about 
—merely sightseers and thrill-hunters. I give a 
“vibratory silence”* I give this silence after my 
public lecture is over. I invite the audience to 
stand, at which time I make a statement some¬ 
what as follows: 

“All matter is composed of seven octaves the 
same as in music. Our bodies, being matter, are, 
therefore, made up of seven octaves. As the piano 
may become out of tune and retuned, so may the 
human body become out of tune by wrong think¬ 
ing, environment, conditions, mental perplexities 
or inharmonious living. 

“And just as the piano may be retuned so can 
the body be reharmonized. 

“When we were boys we had little pocket mag¬ 
nets which afforded us much pleasure by picking 
up particles of steel. These magnets sometimes 
lose their power. They may be re-electrified by 
being rubbed against another magnet which is 
charged with electricity. As magnets may be¬ 
come re-electrified so our bodies when they be¬ 
come sick and out of tune may be reharmonized. 


*This silence, with instructions in full, is on a 12" record which 
can be played on any talking machine, that uses a needle. 
Hundreds of people have been healed by this silence record. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 205 


11 When we strike a chord on the piano a tuning 
fork nearby in tune with the chord struck will 
vibrate in harmony with the piano. So our 
human bodies will vibrate from sickness to health 
by vibrations, music or the human voice. 

“I have a musical friend who had a tuning fork 
which he wanted to test. Would it vibrate in tune 
with some other tuning fork! He placed twelve 
tuning forks on one table, and the other tuning 
fork on another table nearby. He then struck the 
first tuning fork—bing-g-g-g. There was no re¬ 
sponse from the one he was testing. He then 
struck the second—bing-g-g-g. No response. The 
third, the fourth, the fifth, bing-g-g-g. And then 
the response—Bing-g-g-g. So our bodies, when 
ill, may become reharmonized by intonings in the 
silence. 

“As I intone there will be many who will in¬ 
stantly be made well, their bodies reharmonized 
by vibrations by the human voice. 

6 ‘ The thought currents of the intoner create sen¬ 
sations in the human recipient, bringing about a 
re-harmonizing of the defective part in the human 
body. These sensations are electrical—they are 
like the positive and negative forces in an elec¬ 
trical wire. 


206 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


“The law operates for the skeptic as well as the 
believer oftentimes; therefore, if yon are a skep¬ 
tic or a believer, if yon enter the silence which 
follows yon may be instantly healed of mental 
worries or physical ailments. Of conrse the 
chance for your healing, either from mental dis¬ 
turbances or physical disabilities is much greater 
if yon are not skeptical—if yon believe in the 
power of vibration to heal, if yon have faith. The 
stronger your faith, the sooner may be your heal¬ 
ing. This, however, is not always necessary. 
Therefore, whatever may be your frame of mind, 
enter the silence, knowing that the practice there¬ 
of is scientific, logical and psychological and yon 
are in accord and operate a law just as natural 
and just as scientific as the law which controls 
the flow of the tides .’’ 

Skeptical 

Then I invite those in the audience who are 
skeptical to remain, if they desire, because every 
person who is advancing and evolving to a higher 
plane of consciousness must, of necessity, be 
skeptical. In other words, the human race has 
evolved only by virtue of skepticism. When we 
no longer swallow the bait, hook, line and sinker 
of our forefathers on blind faith, but think for 
ourselves before we gulp in Orthodox teaching, 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 207 


we are skeptical. Every advanced line in the uni¬ 
verse, whether it has been in the material realm 
or the spiritual, has started from the foundation 
of skepticism. Therefore, the skeptic, contrary 
to what the word connotes to the ordinary indi¬ 
vidual, is the highest type of thinker in the world; 
he is seeking truth and light without which the 
human race would be in the night of superstition. 

If our forefathers had not been skeptical we 
should still be believing in devils, hell and damna¬ 
tion. So, a skeptic is not such a bad “critter” 
after all. In fact, as we have said, he is the high¬ 
est type of man. 

So, in my public lectures, I always invite the 
skeptics to remain while I give the “ silence/’ 
admonishing the crowd that if they do stay they 
are to be good scouts and good sports and, al¬ 
though the “silence” may be odd and strange to 
them, they are to play the game as I direct. 

The following is a good example of how a per¬ 
son may be healed when his mind is diverted into 
some other channel. 

A young man’s father was greatly interested in 
my campaign. He had tried to persuade his son 
to hear me, but the son had not yet reached that 
plane of consciousness where he believed that 
there was any power in the mind to heal. He had 


208 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


been sick for a long while. Toward the end of 
my lectures he finally made his way up, but got 
there too late to get a seat, so had to go to the 
top gallery. 

After the lecture was over and I was about to 
give the Silence the young man, who had been 
obliged to stand during the entire evening, be¬ 
came very much interested. As I explained how 
people are healed during the silence and exhorted 
those who remained (and the whole house always 
remains,) to play the game with us, even though 
the whole thing was new to many and they did 
not quite understand it, some skeptical young 
American Indians, who were out more as sight¬ 
seers than anything else, began to whisper as I 
was giving the ‘ ‘ Silence. ’ ’ The young man whose 
father had finally persuaded him to attend my 
lectures had become so interested that he went 
over to the young fellows who were disturbing 
those around them and said, “Look here, you fel¬ 
lows, play the game as Dr. Bush asked you or I ’ll 
throw you out. ’ ’ There was no more talking from 
the disturbers, and when the “silence” was over 
the young man had been healed. 

He had never heard a lecture on mind healing 
until that night. He had read no books along that 
line, he had not believed that mind could heal and 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 209 


yet he secured a perfect healing. The only scien¬ 
tific explanation we can furnish is as follows: 
When the young man became so interested as to 
want other boys to play the game as I requested, 
his mind became obsessed with the idea of help¬ 
ing others to make the 11 Silence ’’ a great success, 
and the current of his thinking was changed in¬ 
stantly. A second reason is that during the 
“vibratory silence” his body was charged and 
surcharged with vibration so that he was put 
completely in harmony. 

Sometimes Healed and Do Not Know Why 

Charles M. Barrows, in 4 ‘ Suggestion Instead of 
Medicine,” gives a similar illustration of how 
people are healed when they are not in full accord 
with the method used. 

In November, 1895, a young man came to me for help 
who was suffering from rheumatism in his right knee. He 
was a robust-looking fellow of twenty-one, in good general 
health. He had the care of electric street lights, and was 
consequently exposed to all sorts of weather while making 
his daily rounds; and the continual strain of climbing the 
poles aggravated his lameness. The knee had given him 
trouble during two previous winters, although he had 
no attacks during the warm months that intervened. At 
the time I saw him the joint was somewhat stiff, so that 
he limped when he walked, and complained of constant 


210 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


soreness and pain. The usual medicinal treatment had 
failed to give relief. 

During the slight physical examination required, this 
patient was rather nervous and seemed to feel suspicious; 
for he asked if I were going to hypnotize him. I assured 
him to the contrary, and explained that the treatment to be 
given would interfere in no way with his bodily or mental 
freedom, would produce no unpleasant sensations, and 
require no preparation on his part. He then sat quietly 
looking out of the window, while I sat near him in silence 
for about fifteen minutes and made the necessary sug¬ 
gestions. 

My silence was evidently misinterpreted; for, as soon 
as I was through, he asked in an impatient tone: “When 
are you going to treat my knee? Fve got to go back to 
my work.” On being told that his duty was already per¬ 
formed, he began to move about, and seemed much sur¬ 
prised to find that the soreness and pain were gone from 
the limb. After a second treatment, given on the follow- 
ing day, the joint ceased to give him any trouble. This 
case was of the common type, and the treatment was in no 
way exceptional; and my note-book shows that I had a 
number of other cases of the same trouble during the 
month, and treated them with a like result. A year later 
I learned that this young man had felt no return of his 
rheumatism, which shows that recovery was complete. 


How? 


In our search for an explanation of this phenomenon 
the first point to attract attention is that this patient bore 
no conscious part in his own cure. In no sense did he 
intelligently co-operate with me in an attempt to help him. 
He did not understand the method of treatment, he utterly 
failed to grasp the meaning of the suggestion I made, 
and did not know when it was given. He was as ignorant 
of the recuperative change taking place in his system as he 
was of the growing process in his hair and nails. He told 
a friend, who inquired what I did to his knee, “He didn’t 
do nothin’.” That a person should be thus unconscious of a 
cure taking place within his own body is not strange; for 
it is the rule in such experiences, to which, strictly speak¬ 
ing, there are no exceptions. But the reader is asked to 
take note that this uniform fact of convalescence disputes 
the prevalent belief that under psychical treatment the 
process of getting well is somehow a mental act. We need 
to be convinced that the sort of ignorance which this young 
man displayed is perfectly natural and just what was to be 
expected. 

The reader will notice that this young man did 
not prevent a healing by being skeptical or 
opposed to the treatment. He thus put up no 
counter suggestion and of course was healed. 
Had he consciously or unconsciously doubted the 
method employed, the chances are he would not 


211 


212 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


have been healed. As it was, he was passive, 
receptive and therefore healed. 

This leads me to state that the patient should 
surround himself with people of like mind, with 
sympathetic friends who by their suggestion of 
cure, encouragement for health and inspiration 
of faith will make it possible for suggestion and 
auto-suggestion the easier to reach the subcon¬ 
scious mind. 

C. Franklin Leavitt, writing upon this par¬ 
ticular phase of what the patient has to do, says: 

There are other forms of thinking yon will need to over¬ 
haul and reform—your reasoning, considering, judging, 
determining, etc. When you find yourself thinking of any 
matter in a worried, discouraged, pessimistic, self-distrust¬ 
ful way, turn it off , just as you would turn off a spigot, and 
turn on the other spigot, quick—of optimism, confidence, 
positiveness and serenity! Get into the habit of looking on 
the bright side of things. If you find yourself thinking 
harshly, resentfully, critically, enviously or maliciously, 
get to work immediately and force yourself to think under- 
standingly, tolerantly, kindly and lovingly. I want you to 
do this if you have to do it fifty times a day. 

I don’t mean, of course, that I want you to cultivate 
that sort of mushy optimism, which slurs things over, 
blinks facts, sees no evil and lets people walk all over one. 
You are to face facts—but with bigness, poise, dignity 
and self-respect. Your optimism is to be that of the person 
who knows no one is perfect, but who believes that there 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 213 


is good as well as bad, in every one of us, and that the 
good can be brought out a whole lot quicker by believing 
in it, than by shutting your eyes to it and concentrating 
upon the bad. You are to shut your eyes neither to the bad 
nor the good. You are to remember that it is as weak to 
permit yourself to become peeved, excited, ugly and worried 
and angry as it is to be “easy” and let people lead you 
around by the nose. You are to be strong—but not strong 
just in knowledge of human nature, decision, judgment 
and initiative, but strong also in mastery of self, in 
brotherly love, in that kind of helpfulness to your fellow- 
man which does not mean indulgence of his weaknesses 
but stimulation of his highest and best. 

To sum up this chapter in one sentence—you are to 
make ALL of your thinking, ALL of the time, healthy, 
constructive and FAITEf-FIILL. 

The patient should he taught to hold himself 
aloof from people disposed to discourage him. It 
can be easily seen how difficult it is to treat a 
patient by mental science in a home where all the 
other members of the family are critical or mani¬ 
fest opposition. 

Watch Your Company 

I think George C. Pitzer, M. D., one of the trail 
blazers in this modern movement, is absolutely 
right when he says: 

We instruct all of our patients to avoid all reference 
to their troubles or ailments when mingling with people, 


214 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and to permit nobody to drag them into any discussion 
relating to such things as may be likely to disturb or 
unsettle their minds. By observing these injunctions the 
environments of our patients may be kept more favorable, 
and our prospects for making cures more hopeful. 

Blind See 

I had a recent experience which it would prob¬ 
ably be well to state here. A man had been blind 
for three years. When I opened my campaign he 
was led about the streets of his city by the hand 
of a boy. In my class, during one of the ‘ ‘ sil¬ 
ences,” his sight was restored—he was able to 
see me on the platform. Day by day his sight 
became better and better. Within a month he was 
able not only to get around without any assist¬ 
ance, but could even see a dog trotting on the 
opposite side of the street. 

Some of his friends, however, were extremely 
antagonistic to anything outside of orthodox 
medicine and, despite the fact that materia me- 
dica and various eye specialists had given up this 
particular case and had told the man that there 
never was any chance for him to see again— 
despite the fact, I say, of all such suggestion and 
counsel, he was now seeing. His medical ortho¬ 
dox friends did not like it. They thought he was 
progressing too slowly, and so, three or four 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 215 

months after his sight had been restored, they 
began to hurl their harpoons of negative sugges¬ 
tion. They lambasted him down one side and up 
the other, criticizing him for taking up psy¬ 
chology, shooting him full of holes for being so 
weakminded as to think mind had anything to do 
with his healing. “It is all imagination,’’ they 
said. “Go to a doctor; take radium treatments; 
get some medicine; have a reputable physician 
attend to your case; get perfect sight right away. 
It’s all humbug, this idea of the mind having any¬ 
thing to do with restoring your sight/ ’ 

They continued shattering the faith of their 
good friend until he again resorted to electrical, 
radium, and other medical claptraps. Within 
three months he was a blind man again. 

So, it is safe not merely to admonish, but to 
demand of the patient that he will surround him¬ 
self only with constructive and helpful associa¬ 
tions, friends and reading. 

Believe in Your Healer 

One seeking health must, above all things, have 
faith in the practitioner. It is obvious that the 
patient seeking health aid from a mental thera¬ 
peutist must have at least as much faith in his 
practitioner as the patient has in his family phy- 


216 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


sician. If the patient does not, and cannot have 
faith in the healer, then the wise thing is to find 
some other practitioner—one in whom implicit 
faith can be imposed, otherwise there may be no 
healing. The stronger one’s faith the quicker 
will he the healing. 

Unfriendly Suggestion 

There is another thing that the patient must 
guard against very carefully, and that is, as we 
have mentioned in the forepart of this volume, to 
avoid 4 ‘unfriendly” suggestion, especially nega¬ 
tive suggestions of a religious character. As we 
have already stated, a man’s faith in Deity is the 
strongest faith possible and, likewise, his reli¬ 
gious prejudices are the strongest negative sug¬ 
gestion he can have. 

C. Franklin Leavitt again says, “There is 
something that the patient has to do.”* 

Then, if I were you, I should also work out a sort of 
creed to tie to—a clear-cut, pregnant statement of what 
you want to do, why you think it can be done, and how 
you are going to do it. Something on this order: 

“I believe I have within me splendid reserves of power 
and wisdom, which have existed up to now, for the most 
part, unrecognized and unutilized. I believe these latest 
resources can be made available through right thinking and 
right living. I believe that, As a man thinketh in his 


*“Are you you?” C. Franklin Leavitt, Publisher, Chicago, Ill. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 217 


heart, so is he/ and that this works by means of the law 
of SUGGESTION. I believe that FEAR constitutes 
harmful suggestion, and FAITH beneficial suggestion. I 
am determined that from now on I am going to use the 
force of AUTO-SUGGESTION in a scientific manner, 
and give myself only the auto-suggestions of FAITH, as 
far as possible, so that I may become the healthy, happy, 
successful man I desire to be, and that I know I CAN be, 
if I fulfill the law” 

Make this longer, or make it briefer, as you prefer. The 
thing is to work out something which will express what 
you feel to be true, something which will help you. 

Next comes your INVENTORY OF WEAKNESS. 
Sit down and face yourself in unflinching scrutiny, my 
friend. Look at yourself as if you were someone else. 
Write down the faults you see. 

Perhaps physically you’re a bit “soft” or undeveloped. 
Perhaps certain ailments will have to be jotted down on 
that list—indigestion, headaches, constipation, catarrah, 
rheumatism, etc. Probably you have, naturally, a good 
constitution. Maybe you haven’t. Possibly you are actually 
ill. 

How does your brain work—vigorously and clearly, or in 
a blurred, sluggish way? Are you self-confident, de¬ 
termined, efficient, successful, happy—or will you have to 
write down, “Not so very successful, not so very happy, 
self conscious, vacillating, timid, and lacking in initiative.” 
Are you optimistic or pessimistic, poised or nervous, sweet 
tempered or grouchy? Are you living?—loving?—grow¬ 
ing ?—serving ?—enjoying life ? 

Ferret out every weakness. Then think into the “why” 
of each one. Among these whys you will find hereditary 


218 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


tendencies, incorrect training in childhood, ignorance, lazi¬ 
ness, habit, lack of ambition or lack of real desire to be 
different, lack of self-confidence—and the fact that you 
haven’t THOUGHT enough or thought RIGHT. 

First of all, we can eliminate our parents and ancestors 
as a source of trouble, for although these may have handed 
down to us certain tendencies, tendencies, as I have told 
you before, can be destroyed. No one is “fate-driven.” 
Each is really the “Captain of his own soul,” the “Master 
of his own fate.” We can “get there” in spite of handicaps. 
I feel almost like saying because of them. For in order 
to develop our strength we need resistance to come up 
against. EFFORT is necessary if anything worth-while 
is to be accomplished. What you will be in the future 
depends upon how much of an effort you have had to make. 
Our old friend, William James, tells us that “Man is the 
amount of effort he is able to make.” 

Following upon this earnest consideration and analysis 
of your weakness you are now to turn your eyes in the 
other direction and look at the perfect man you’d like to 
be, or, rather, that you intend to be—the man you really 
are, in your true self. See him in all of his physical vigor. 
and soundness and fine development. Note his poise, his 
power, his confidence, his optimism, his alertness, his self- 
control. See how efficient he is, how happy, how success¬ 
ful! Put in all the details you want to. Make that pic¬ 
ture seem as real to you as if you were all of that NOW. 
Don’t be afraid to make it big and daring and colorful. 
Remind yourself of those stored-up treasures within you. 
Remember what thought can do. Believe—KNOW—that 
you can be all this. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO HO 219 


You will make this dream-picture into a living, breath¬ 
ing reality through observing certain laws. 

Some of these are physical and some mental. Because 
I specialize in the mental end of things people are likely 
to think that I ignore the physical. I certainly do not. 
That would be neither sane nor scientific. One cannot 
neglect either the physical nor the mental. Both must be 
taken into consideration. You will need to examine and 
perhaps reform your habits of diet, exercise, rest, recrea¬ 
tion, etc., just as you will need to examine and reform 
your habits of thinking. In this book I am concentrating 
upon the thinking. I am, therefore, concerned mainly with 
mental laws. The thing you are going to have to do is to 
change from one habit of thinking (FEAB-thinking) to 
another habit—FAITH-thinking; from a negative to a 
positive mode of thought; from the indulgence of the emo¬ 
tions of hate, depression, irritability, self-distrust, dis¬ 
couragement, worry, etc., to the cultivation of such emotions 
as confidence, love, courage, poise, independence, strength 
and peace. 

There is another thing which the patient must 
do in order to help the practitioner and God to 
effect the healing and that is to establish as a pre¬ 
dominant mental attitude,* one that is cheerful, 
optimistic, hopeful and faithful. 

At first this will be a shock to some good people 
seeking health. They think it is simply impos¬ 
sible to get out of the rut of gloom. They think 
to be in the dumps is their nature. To dwell upon 

*See “The Hidden Power of Thought,” 25c, by the author. 



220 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the dark side of life is their “joy.” Some people 
think they can not be happy unless they are in 
poverty, sorrow and trouble. No doubt this frame 
of mind is the thing that has made them sick.f 

Someone has beautifully put it in this fashion: 

It is just as easy to go through life looking for the good 
and the beautiful, instead of the ugly; for the noble instead 
of the ignoble; for the bright and cheerful instead of the 
dark and gloomy; the hopeful instead of the despairing; 
to see the bright side instead of the dark side. To set your 
face always toward the sunlight is just as easy as to see 
always the shadows, and it makes all the difference in your 
character between content and discontent, between hap¬ 
piness and misery, and in your life, between prosperity and 
adversity, between success and failure. 


tSee ‘ ‘Psycho-Analysis, Kinks in the Mind . n 



Would You? 

Learn to look for the light, then. Positively refuse 
to harbor shadows and blots, and the deformed, the dis¬ 
figured, the discordant. Hold to those things that give 
pleasure, that are helpful and inspiring, and you will 
change your whole way of looking at things, will transform 
your character in a very short time. 

A great many people think they would be happy if 
they were only in different circumstances, when the fact is 
that circumstances have little, if anything, to do with 
one’s temperament or disposition to enjoy the world. 

I know people who have lost their best friends, who have 
all their lives been apparently unfortunate, have strug¬ 
gled against odds and have themselves been invalids, and 
yet they have borne up bravely through it all, and have 
been cheerful, hopeful, inspiring to all who knew them. 

You who are always unhappy, who are always grum¬ 
bling about your circumstances, hard luck, and poverty, 
must remember that thousands of people would be happy 
in precisely your condition. 

Nothing to “ Curse” 

The old mediaevalistic, aye, the old early Latin 
theology which has been elaborated upon in the 
modern day church has, by way of its fear sug¬ 
gestions, had untold influence for sickness in more 
ways than one. 


221 


222 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The orthodox narrative of Adam and Eve’s 
wrong doing and the implication contained there¬ 
in that a curse was put upon the daughters of 
Eve, thenceforth to give birth to children in 
agony has made thousands of years of suffering 
that ought never to have been. 

Of course the great suffering at delivery has 
been augmented by wrong eating, living and 
dressing, especially the last. The foolish idea 
that a woman has to encase her form in whale 
bone, steel and lace is next door to insanity. We 
are getting away from it little by little, but I sup¬ 
pose there are still some women who think it is 
immoral to go without a corset. In fact, some 
think it’s an offense against nature and blas¬ 
phemy against God to follow such a foolish 
fashion. 

We have sent our little tots to Sunday School. 
Here the girlies have heard the story of the curse 
put upon the female species. She hears about the 
hard times and the birth pains, her mother talks 
about it and her relatives mention it until it has 
become such an obsession that the way has been 
paved for an unnatural delivery. 

The curse in Genesis put upon the head of 
woman has had its subconscious deadly effect 
upon womanhood for thousands of years. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 223 


Condemnation and Damnation 

We have heard so much about sin, sickness and 
the devil and what will happen to us if we get our 
just deserts, that our minds have been set ablaze 
with pictures of the terrible, all devouring fire 
which “never shall he quenched’’ and with the 
everlasting dream of gnawing worms, the bottom¬ 
less pit and the outer darkness. So, consciously 
or unconsciously, when a child or later, you may. 
in such wise, have been a victim of religious 
intolerance, condemnation, damnation or hell. 

This kind of teaching has set the world back¬ 
ward in health and happiness a trillion years. It 
has occasioned poverty and limitation. It has 
caused paroxysms and spasms of mental torture 
and physical suffering that even the angels them¬ 
selves could never record. It is about time that 
we begin to look up to the Star of the East and 
have our minds fixed on God, remembering the 
pronouncement of Isaiah, ‘ ‘ Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” 
Had our religion for these centuries and centuries 
and centuries, been one of charity, good-will, 
mercy, fidelity, kindness, brotherly love and meek¬ 
ness, there would he very little sickness in the 
world today. The wonder is that the world has 
any health at all. 


224 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In Practical Psychology and Sex Life I have 
made it very explicit and emphatic in the Chap¬ 
ter “How to Demonstrate to Get What Yon 
Want” that certain fundamental things are nec¬ 
essary before we may hope to have demonstra¬ 
tions. One that I mention is the fact that we must, 
as a preliminary, empty our minds of all precon¬ 
ceived ideas, erroneous teaching, inharmonious 
and negative thinking of every kind and descrip¬ 
tion. This is not always easy to do. In fact, I 
believe one of the hardest things in the life of 
each one who aspires to be healed is to pull up 
by the roots our old way of thinking—our nega¬ 
tive side of life, our inharmonious mentation and 
our fixed habits of wrong thinking of every de¬ 
scription. For example, when a man finds out 
that his sickness comes from jealousy, hatred, 
envy, worry, the biggest battle of his life for 
healing is to make up his mind that he will con¬ 
quer the demon of hate, jealousy, envy or worry. 
Therefore, the first thing and the hardest thing 
and the most essential thing for him is to decide 
that he is going to conquer his wrong thinking. 
David says that “he that ruleth himself is better 
than he that taketh a city. ’ ’ It means real heroic 
blood for the people who are ill because of wrong 
thinking, to resolve that they will conquer the 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 225 


demon of wrong thinking which has obsessed 
their mind. 

As a rule the person who is cultured and re¬ 
fined and educated finds it the hardest to make 
such a decision, not so much because he fails to 
recognize his own shortcomings, as that he doesn’t 
see why they have anything to do with it.* 

“Sometimes we are rather inclined to think 
that thought is the very highest function of our 
being. Then we lay great stress on the intellec¬ 
tual side of thinking and declare that reason is 
the one supreme fact. But there is something 
more than reason in the life of man—something 
more than thought; there is something that pro¬ 
duces thought and transcends it.” 

If you have a logical mind and a scientific mind 
and a well-trained intellectuality and you are in¬ 
clined to reason out everything before you take 
your next step, you are probably going to have 
difficulty in believing and practicing the outline 
of this book—you have so much to get out of your 
mind. The fact that you have a strong mind very 
often becomes a handicap to your healing. You 

*For scientific study and understanding of how our wrong 
thinking produces sickness, see chapters on Chemistry of Thought 
and Vibration in Applied Psychology and Scientific Living, Vol. 
1 of this series. 



226 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


let reason stand in the way. You let reason clog 
np the channels of healing—the influx of the soul. 

But I am sure if you will again re-read chap¬ 
ters on Vibration and Chemistry of Emotion in 
Applied Psychology and Scientific Living, your 
reason will make you well, for it is so explicitly 
outlined in these chapters that any logical, 
mathematically inclined reasoner will have the 
proper stimulation after reading those chapters, 
for healing. 

While we are speaking along this line, it is well 
to mention that children are very often more 
easily healed than adults for the reason that they 
have not clogged their minds with preconceived 
ideas, with false religious teachings, with erro¬ 
neous conceptions of the philosophy of existence, 
but are open to conviction because they have a 
simpler faith in God. 

The child does not reason why God is, where 
he came from and what he’s going to do. He just 
believes in God, he possesses that child-like ex¬ 
plicit faith which the man who tries to reason the 
why and wherefore of life, may get only as a result 
of a hard and strenuous re-education of his philos¬ 
ophy of existence. Not only are children healed 
easily in mental science, because of their great 
faith in God’s power to do all things, hut they are 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO HO 227 


often a great help in healing others. They lend 
the assistance of their faith to adults who have 
been out sailing upon the sea of reason, and who 
cannot grasp without a re-education of their reli¬ 
gious and philosophical beliefs. 

That is one reason why some so-called, miracle 
producing fanatical religious healers attract to 
them the uneducated and the uncultured and very 
often have most wonderful temporary results. 
The uneducated person lives in the realm of 
superstitious faith and this superstitious belief in 
the miraculous power of God very often gives 
him a temporary, sometimes a permanent healing. 

So if you seem to be a little slower in grasping 
the idea of mental healing, it may be because of 
your logic and your reason and your intellectual 
development, but do not let these stand in your 
way. May we impress again upon you the scien¬ 
tific simplicity in chapters on Vibration and 
Chemistry of Emotion to be found in Applied 
Psychology and Scientific Living. 

Someone has beautifully said in the evolution 
of life we must unfold to that which tends toward 
the perfect likeness of God. In some lives this 
comes gradually, while in others the development 
is more rapid. Whatever may be the evolution¬ 
ary development of your mind, be you, however, 


228 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


close a reasoner, or a logical thinker, healing for 
you is now able to manifest itself from the power 
within to the likeness of the perfection without. 

The healing spirit of infinite love now surges 
through you, making you well, whole and com¬ 
plete. 

If a patient fails to be healed, the fault may lie 
with the practitioner, or the patient may be in a 
state of resistance. In some subconscious way he 
may be clinging to negative thoughts, unholy de¬ 
sires, or be doubtful of the outcome of this 
method of healing. The patient must learn to 
“let go.” 

“Make It Up” 

George C. Tenney, from experience in a sana¬ 
torium, writes: 

To help a person who is at outs with everything and 
everybody is like trying to save a drowning man who is 
determined to drown. Some people spend most of their 
time in hunting themselves over for some new ailment, and 
when they have found it they are the most happy that they 
ever are. Immediately they hang it about their necks, 
where it becomes an additional millstone to drag them 
down. Nothing does so much to obstruct the work of 
restoring normal conditions as for the individual to wage 
continual war with his situation and surroundings. Giv¬ 
ing medicine or treatment to a person whose mind is in 
the turmoil of discontent is like pouring water into heated 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 229 


oil. Irritation and disturbance is the consequence. Heal¬ 
ing is the work of divine power, and in the use of divinely 
appointed means for the recovery of health it is as neces¬ 
sary to he in harmony with the application of those means 
as though the Divine Master were himself applying the 
means. A good and wise Providence is seeking to work 
out for us a noble end; and contentment means being in 
harmony with the work that is being done for us, whether 
that work be agreeable to our feelings or not. 

“It matters not what may be the cause of the trouble in 
the anxious mind,” says Dr. A. J. Sanderson, “the results 
upon the body are the same. Every function is weakened, 
and under the continual influence of a depressed state of 
mind, they degenerate. Especially is this true if any organ 
of the body is handicapped by weakness from any other 
cause. The combination of the two influences will soon 
lead to actual disease. 

“The greatest barrier in the way of the healing process, 
especially if the malady be one that is accompanied by 
severe pain, is the mental depression that is associated 
with it and often becomes a factor of the disease. It 
stands in the way of recovery sometimes more than do the 
physical causes, and obliterates from the consciousness of 
the individual the wonderful healing power of nature, so 
essential to recovery.” 

Cone tells him he is going to get better, and 
adds: 

You have been sowing bad seed in your Unconscious; 
now you will sow good seed. The power by which you 
have produced such ill-effects will in the future produce 
equally good ones. 


Mental House Cleaning 

It is as impossible for a mental healer to help 
a patient who has a disturbed conscience, as it is 
for him to heal a preson who holds murderous 
thoughts. “Argul,” the patient must have a 
mental house-cleaning, sweep out the rubbish of 
mental offenses, so that his conscience can be 
clear. Without a clear conscience, do not expect 
too much from your healer. 

John Murray, in “How to Get Well,” says: 

The Apostle says, “Ye ask, but ye ask amiss that ye may 
consume it upon your lusts.” If life, and health, and 
strength, and prosperity are worth anything they are 
worth the sacrifice of our dishonesties and deceptions, and 
we ought not to feel offended when one points out to us 
the errors which are standing in the way of our attaining 
these blessings. He is not my friend who, seeing my afflic¬ 
tions and knowing the sins which are responsible for them, 
hesitates to warn me of them lest he incur my ill-will. How 
readily we say if our friends would cease doing what they 
are doing they would quickly recover, but we usually say 
it to someone other than to them. What we say may be 
the truth, but we are telling it to the wrong person. 

Patients may sometimes deceive themselves and their 
practitioners as to the real cause of their mental, nervous 
and physical diseases, but as the Bible puts it they cannot, 
“Mock God”; that is, they cannot fool the Law of sowing 
and reaping. I have known patients to expect healing 

230 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 231 


while living in concealed adultery and marvel why they did 
not get it, while others have had an idea they could be 
patched up in order to grow strong enough to carry on 
some nefarious business. 

As we pointed out elsewhere, the best healer is 
the one who, kindly and lovingly, points out the 
errors in the patient’s mental machinery which 
are producing his trouble and keeping him sick. 

Recognizing that wrong thinking, living and 
“sin” had caused sickness, Jesus delicately and 
beautifully admonished those he had healed to 
“Go and sin no more.” 

It is impossible to heal the body and keep well 
if we do not cleanse the mind and purify the soul 
and “keep clean!” This is what Christ referred 
to when he said to the scribes and Pharisees: 
“Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
platter but within they are full of extortion and 
excess.” 

Someone has said: 

It would be foolish to make the outside of the platter 
clean and to leave the inside untouched, for this is prac¬ 
tically what we do when we try to heal the body without 
first cleansing the mind. To do so, as someone has said, is 
like rushing into a burning building and, seizing the 
clothing of a man overcome by fumes, leave the man him¬ 
self to be devoured by the flames. Just as the body of a 
man is more than his garments, so the mind of man is 


232 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


more than his body, and it is for this reason that due atten¬ 
tion should be paid to the mind. 

John Murray is right: 

The remedy is at hand, but the healing water 
of life cannot be poured into the vessel of the 
soul until the soil is emptied of all that is unlike 
God. This is the souPs responsibility to make 
clean the dwelling place of the Infinite in us. Let 
us purify our minds of the dross of all. unclean¬ 
ness and the healing energy of God will circulate 
through every artery of our being and we shall 
be made “Every whit whole,’’ Spirit, soul, and 
body. 

What Next? 

After you have forgotten all wrongs that have 
been done to you, never cite them to yourself or 
to anyone else. Every time you do, you are sim¬ 
ply tearing open the old mental sore which shouTd 
be allowed to heal through forgetfulness. 

Not only must we let go of negative thinking 
and wrong living, but the patient must learn to 
relax, mentally and physically. This may be done 
as Winbigler says.* 

Relax 

He must relax mentally and physically, holding the 
thoughts: “I am relaxed, quiet and peaceful.” “Peace fills 

*See “Concentration Made Easy” and “How to Relax” 
by the author. * 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 233 


my whole being,” and mentally intending and seeing that 
it does. Having an open and receptive mind. Forgetting 
the ailments and thinking of health, peace and strength; 
thinking all that is good, true and beautiful; expecting a 
realization of these things in the whole personality. Ex¬ 
pecting a clearer view of the truth and mentally laying hold 
of the truth will greatly help. Being ready to receive is a 
better attitude than mentally reaching out after what the 
healer gives, as that mental state will have a tendency to 
make one anxious and tense. This condition will cause all 
kinds of thoughts in the mind of the patient and interfer¬ 
ence with the work to be done. Holding the thought of 
complete recovery, renewal of spiritual power, and a full 
realization of the presence of God will help in the work. 
Having confidence in what is being done and obeying direc¬ 
tions. Refraining from thinking about his ailments and 
refusing utterly to talk about his sickness to his friends. 
Health is what is wanted and the way to get it is to think, 
talk, dream and mentally picture it to one’s self and others. 
This is and ought to be also the healer’s attitude and will 
be if he is to succeed in his work. If the patient talks the 
opposite he is undoing all the help the healer is giving, 
rejecting all thoughts of health which he is sending and 
undoing all that the patient can help to do for himself. 

There is another element which enters into 
healing, at which we have merely hinted, which 
is extremely necessary and mnst be scrupulously 
followed by the wise patient, and that is to con¬ 
form with the natural hygienic laws of living.* 


*See Volume 6 of this series. 



234 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Elizabeth Towne has well expressed it.f 

What life has done once she can do again. As long as 
life lasts it is not too late to turn the tide of dissolution in 
any organ of the body. But the longer the dissolution has 
been going on the more attention, intelligence, will and 
persistence it takes to change the current. But it can be 
done. 

If I should find my eyes beginning to trouble me I would 
heed the call and correct the causes immediately. The first 
cause of any disease is constitutional, not local. If my 
eyes troubled me I would first clear my system by a series 
of short fasts, along with plenty of all-over exercise, as 
much as possible out of doors, including plenty of syste¬ 
matic full breathing accompanied by positive affirmations 
of health and joy. 

I would rest my eyes often by changing work, and by 
stopping frequently to close them for a few moments and 
then to roll them slowly three or four times from right to 
left, and then from left to right—rolling them clear 
around, as if following the outline of a great upright hoop 
in which I was standing upright. This movement brings 
into play certain eye muscles and nerves which are never 
used in ordinary work, thus correcting the usual eye strain. 
If I used glasses at all it would be for the same purpose— 
to change for a time the focus, resting the tired muscles 
and nerves. I would use my eyes without glasses until 
slightly tired; then rest and exercise them a bit and wear 
the glasses for a time while working. At the first symptom 
of tiring with the glasses on I would repeat the rolling 

tElizabeth Towne’s “Experience in Self-Healing by Herself,” 
The Elizabeth Towne Company, Inc., Holyoke, Mass. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 235 


exercises and lay the glasses aside again, repeating the 
change as often as necessary. 

And every time I was in any way reminded of my eyes, 
especially every time I exercised them or changed to 
glasses or back again, I would take full, even breaths of 
fresh air and tell myself positively and repeatedly that I 
am growing strong and my eyes are gaining fast—that my 
eyes are developing, growing, in wisdom, power, life, beauty 
and joy of seeing. 

All failure of eyesight is probably due to overworking 
one particular set of eye muscles and nerves; giving them 
more work to do than you give them energy to work with. 
These nerves and muscles fag out just as you would if kept 
at one particular kind of work until it became mechanical 
and then hateful to you. 

All your body is intelligent and must be treated con¬ 
siderately if you would have it work well and grow strong 
at it. Respect your eyes, and give them rest and recreation 
enough, change enough, to enable them to enjoy their work. 
If your eyes receive respectful treatment they will with 
every year increase in usefulness and intelligence. 

A. B. did not respect her eyes; when they complained 
she reproved them and told them they could do it and they 
must, so there! She used brute will upon them; instead 
of treating them in the respectful, kindly manner which 
would have roused the will within them. Have you not 
seen a mother drive her child, and noted the inertia and 
resentment of the child ? Have you not seen another 
mother smile at her child, turn its attention by a story 
which roused the child’s desire to do, and then noted the 
ease with which the child obeyed? The first mother tried 


236 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


to move her child by her own will; the second one kept her 
own will passive and called out the child’s will—by sym¬ 
pathy, faith and the power of her own soul-shine. 

Eyes are made of the same stuff as children, and need 
the same sort of treatment. A little change for them, a 
few smiles on your part, plenty of faith in their right 
desire and power, and they are ready again for work. And 
by and by they will have learned to work happily along 
without any particular thought on your part. 

A little humoring, a little more patience, a lot of cheer¬ 
ful belief, and plenty of repetition, will rouse the eye-will 
to habitual good and happy work. If you take pains to 
apply these at the first symptoms of rebellion your work 
will be easy; if you persistently ignore and frown upon 
your eye rebellion until rebellion becomes habitual and eye 
nerves and muscles badly fagged, it will take more time, 
attention, humoring and repetition to get your eyes back 
into their naturally good humored and willing condition— 
to get their will roused. 

Eyes develop by using them; but not by using them 
against their will. 

Then the patient should ever remember that 
people who are nervously inclined and taut and 
tense should bring themselves to a stop now and 
then when they discover that they are under too 
great a strain. They may find themselves hur¬ 
rying along in an unnecessarily tense frame of 
mind or becoming inwardly excited. Very often 
all that is needed in order to prevent serious 
trouble is to remove some of the pressure, lift the 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 237 


lid, slow down the gait, get hold of one’s self, let 
up and then find quiet and repose in relaxation. 

‘ ‘ The instance is related of a student in the Uni¬ 
versity of Leipzig who was in such an intense state 
of nervous strain that the students and professors 
were much alarmed at his condition. As the re¬ 
sult of good advice he took up the habit of sitting 
quietly by himself for about fifteen minutes each 
day, in absolute silence, maintaining as nearly as 
possible a state of perfect composure and muscu¬ 
lar rest, banishing all thought and all activity. In 
a short time he made a very noticeable improve¬ 
ment, and finally recovered his health. The mere 
effort of maintaining an easy, relaxed state of 
mind and body had relieved him of the inner pres¬ 
sure.” 

One of the first things a patient has to learn is that 
there is no sensation where there is no consciousness, and 
that there is no consciousness in the body independent of 
the mind. It is astonishing what relief this conviction 
brings to mind and body, for when a man knows that his 
body can experience no sensation save that which is forced 
upon it by fixed attention he begins to look away from the 
body and to be present with the Lord, as Paul puts it. In 
addition to all that the practitioner may do for a patient, 
the patient must learn to cease talking and, so far as 
possible, thinking about himself in a morbid way. 


238 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Most of us have a persistent habit of dwelling on every 
little ache or pain as if it were the sure harbinger of some 
terrible and incurable malady. We read everything obtain¬ 
able which is descriptive of our symptoms, until we be¬ 
come persuaded that we are in a very serious predicament; 
and, indeed, we are if we do not discontinue our morbid 
imaginings. It has been discovered centuries ago that to 
dwell morbidly on bodily sensations tends to produce 
disease where there is none, and to aggravate it where as 
yet it is in its incipiency. 

It is for this reason that the patient must make a 
covenant with himself to resist the temptation to indulge 
in morbid thinking and talking if he would rise above his 
maladies, for it is as necessary to resist sickly thinking 
and talking as it is to resist sinful thinking and talking, 
though we have not hitherto been so instructed. This may 
be a New Thought but it is nevertheless a good Thought. 
If it has been a pleasure for us in the past to discuss our 
symptoms and add to them in consequence, it might be 
well for us to discontinue the practice and note our inevi¬ 
table improvement.—John Murray. 

In other volumes of this series, the author 
has dwelt at great length upon the impres¬ 
sion which every thought, conscious or sub¬ 
conscious, makes upon the cells of the body. 
Every conscious thought is registered and im¬ 
printed in the subconscious mind. Every wrong 
thought, every idea of sickness, poverty or fail¬ 
ure, upon which one dwells, is being expressed in 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 239 


the body. So, every good thought of health, hap¬ 
piness, prosperity, harmony, growth and success 
is at once registered in the subconscious mind and 
becomes active in the cells of the body, making 
the body like the things we think upon. So the 
patient should form the habit of right-thinking 
continuously. It is not enough to -‘hold a 
thought’ ’ for fifteen minutes a day and then, for 
the rest of the time, hold wrong or negative think¬ 
ing. The results will be in proportion as we ex¬ 
pect. Therefore, the predominating thought 
should be constructive. The patient should form 
the habit of thinking health, success, harmony, 
prosperity, love, growth and joy. 

Eye Specks 

I am often asked in my classes how to remove 
specks floating before the eyes. There is a science 
now which diagnoses all kinds of diseases by 
specks in the eyes. One speck in one location 
means liver trouble. Another speck in another 
location means stomach trouble, etc. The person 
who is looking for mental healing need pay no 
attention to these specks for when the mind heals 
the body, these specks disappear. Discussion of 
specks is only another of the horrible, unfriendly 
suggestions which merely make us worse when 


240 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


we see a speck and want to know what has caused 
it. 

When the physical condition is corrected, the 
specks disappear. 

To wonder what the specks mean and to be told 
that some of the organs are out of harmony is 
only adding more emphasis to the unfriendly sug¬ 
gestion—making it harder to be healed. 

When the physical is corrected, the specks be¬ 
fore the eyes disappear. Never mind what caused 
the specks; never mind how long they have been 
there; never mind how long they shall stay, just 
know that by physical correction nature adjusts 
herself correctly in every respect and all evidence 
of inharmony disappears. 

Do Not Believe All You Hear 

The patient must not be disturbed by any sug¬ 
gestion of the diagnostician and, above every¬ 
thing, must not be always offering a defense or a 
negative suggestion to counterbalance the work of 
the practitioner by continually believing what the 
diagnostician has told you is the trouble. 

How often, oh, how often, in my classes do 
people ask, "Ho you think I can be healed of 
deafness V’ or something else; and then immedi¬ 
ately follow their question with the counter-sug- 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 241 


gestion, “The Doctor says my ear drum is punc¬ 
tured”; or “The physician says I have a floating 
kidney ”; or “ The specialist says I never can see 
again. ’ ’ As long as the patient believes what the 
diagnostician has said, so long will his healing be 
delayed. 

The mind cannot entertain two thoughts at one 
and the same time. You cannot believe in health, 
harmony, growth and strength if you hold a 
counter thought of punctured ear drum, floating 
kidney, or any other floating thing. 

Of course, if a man’s leg has been cut off we 
can’t expect it to grow back again. Tadpoles can 
grow another leg but, so far, man has never done 
it. If an ear drum has been punctured or de¬ 
stroyed, one may not grow another ear drum, but 
the one great thing to remember is this: the doc¬ 
tor does not always diagnose the case correctly! 
Thereby hangs a tale—perhaps the tale of your 
perfect healing. We always instruct our classes, 
“Do not believe everything you hear.” That’s 
the only safe place any patient can head in. If 
you doubt my suggestion and want to prove for 
yourself That doctors can be wrong, go tomorrow 
to ten different physicians and ask them to tell 
you what is the matter with you (whether you are 
sick or well does not matter) and I will wager 


242 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


that there won’t be three out of ten doctors who 
tell you the same thing. What will happen! They 
will not diagnose correctly. They will tell you 
merely what they think is the matter. That does 
not necessarily make it true. Doctors are human; 
they make mistakes, and, inasmuch as there 
will not he three doctors out of ten who will 
give you the same diagnosis, it is safer to proceed 
upon the assumption that, when you are told you 
have a floating kidney, or a punctured ear drum, 
or anything else, that the doctor has guessed 
wrong, than to think that you have been given a 
correct diagnosis. 

I say from this hangs a tale—the tale of your 
health or your sickness. Believe what the doctor 
says, if it is negative, and you will get the result 
of your belief. If the doctor is right, thinking 
health is bound to give you an uplift of spirit and 
an improved mental outlook, which is a thousand 
times better. If the doctor is wrong, to believe in 
health, harmony, growth, success means that 
which you think will come to you. 

Form Right Habits 

A patient should help himself by establishing 
good habits. The subconscious mind is a creature 
of habit. Thought is a habit as well as any part 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 243 


of our actions. Therefore, form right habits of 
living, acting, thinking. 

If we learn to think rightly, learn to think on whole¬ 
some subjects, learn to think along the lines of health, learn 
to banish morbid and unwholesome subjects: in a word, if 
we learn to think along the lines of health and make a 
habit of these things, we shall wonderfully stimulate and 
direct the subconsciousness. 

And, finally, the patient must form the habit of 
daily reading, as well as daily concentration, 
visualizing or the “silence”—either way you 
choose to express it. 

When one reads these books on Fundamentals of 
Applied Psychology and Health as he does an ordinary 
novel, the benefits derived will not be very lasting. 

When one will devote from fifteen to thirty minutes a 
day for several weeks—the longer the better—reading, re¬ 
laxing, and absorbing its vibrations, relating with the cur¬ 
rents which inspired it, and with which it is impregnated, 
the unfoldment which will come to such a life, the revela¬ 
tions which will be given to such a soul, will be most con¬ 
structive and beneficial. 

After one has learned to relax in mind and body 
the spirit of attention and expectation must be 
aroused. These mental processes are wonderful 
motor forces, and the limit of their influence upon 
the body for good or evil is well nigh beyond 
belief. 


Over-Eating—Castor Oil 

Eighteen cases of sickness out of twenty, or 
probably ninety-eight out of a hundred, are due to 
wrong or over-eating. So if you are sick, the 
very first thing is to go without eating for a day 
or two, especially if you have no appetite. The 
old medical way of prescribing some kind of a 
laxative had virtue in it, but a person should be 
very careful when using laxatives. Some medical 
authorities now say that castor oil, that good old 
stand-by castor oil, is one of the worst things 
to react upon the bowels and cause constipation. 

Most careful attention, therefore, should be 
given to one’s eating or rather cessation of eat¬ 
ing, and to keeping the bowels open. Better 
than cathartics are nature’s laxatives, copious 
draughts of pure water and rest from eating. 
Breathe often and deeply and expose the body to 
sunshine and fresh air. Rest and sleep all you 
possibly can; bathe often in tepid water; lie down 
frequently and relax in mind and body, do not 
give in to your feelings of lassitude, sickness or 
to your troubles.* 

*See Relaxation Made Easy—25c, by the author. 

244 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO HO 245 


With this preparation have faith that you pos¬ 
sess the power to bring hack the health that you 
desire, for the main thing is your attitude of mind. 
This is absolutely the first and most essential 
thing for health. Suggest to yourself health, 
power, strength, vigor, vitality, peace, love, joy 
and prosperity/ 

Last hut far from least hold a picture of health, 
strength and vigor in your mind. Summon up a 
strong desire to carry this picture into the body 
and impress your thoughts with it and call upon 
the will to hack up the desire. 

Watch This 

Whatever may he your defect, do not hold 
thoughts that other people have had your same 
ailment and have become worse and worse, or 
have died. Suppose people have died of consump¬ 
tion, Bright’s disease or lumbago. What of it! 
Instead of thinking that you may do the same, 
hold the thought and mental picture that every 
disease and trouble under the sun are amenable 
to suggestion and can be corrected by proper 
mental attitude; that the eternal principle of life 

*For specific affirmations, see “Affirmations and How to Use 
Them”—25c, by the author. 



246 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


is perfect; that you are made in the image of God 
(in the spirit of God) and that you are a perfect 
child of the living Father. Get into your con¬ 
sciousness the positive and correct idea that right 
thinking, coupled with right living, such as proper 
breathing, regular exercise, careful diet, plenty 
of sunshine and fresh air, is the solution of the 
health problem. 

Not only hold these thoughts but get busy right 
away in correcting your breathing habits, your 
eating and any other violation of hygienic laws 
you may be guilty of. 

This makes a wonderful addition to your sug¬ 
gestions for health—that is to say, correcting 
faulty habits and conforming to proper hygienic 
laws. Elsewhere we have shown that much dis¬ 
ease is imaginary. If your disease is not imagi¬ 
nary, but real, it matters not. Right thinking and 
right living usually correct all physical inhar¬ 
monies. 

If the patient is unable to convince himself that 
the foregoing is the right program to pursue, he 
should seek the aid of an experienced practitioner 
or associate with someone who has healed him¬ 
self by mind. All healing that has ever been 
effected, has been effected by suggestion. Con- 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 247 


sequently your physical condition from now on 
depends upon the kind of suggestions with which 
you surround yourself. 

Many people are sick because they are uncon¬ 
sciously the recipients of negative suggestions 
from some quarter. Hence the patient, knowing 
the power of suggestion, consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously should seek every means whereby he can 
surround himself with positive, constructive 
health suggestions. 

Association with other people of like mind will 
be a great assistance here. An added power for 
suggestion will accrue to the patient if he em¬ 
ploys a regular trained healer to help him correct 
his physical inharmonies. 

And, by all means, take time each day to read 
approved works on suggestive therapeutics. The 
present series of books represents years of study, 
research and actual experimentations and will give 
the person seeking health the necessary reading 
material for many a day. 

The success of the great Christian Science 
movement is due in large measure to the fact 
that it enjoins upon its patients—those who have 
been healed, as well as all of its members—to 
follow carefully a daily course of reading. 


248 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The patient who is going to be fair with himself 
and who expects that God will heal him, must he 
fair with God and do his part in helping to effect 
a healing and to keep himself healed after the 
cure. Next to association with others, there prob¬ 
ably is nothing, more helpful in this regard than 
daily systemized reading. 

The patient should follow a daily course of 
reading. 

An essential article in the program of anyone 
resolved upon maintaining or acquiring good 
health is to acknowledge one’s own potentialities. 
In fact, it is a duty not only to acknowledge hut 
to assert and make claim to this potential force 
within. 

Think On Your Own Power 

One must think that he is made for health and 
for happiness, that he is created a child of God. 
He must do nothing less than live up to his birth¬ 
right. 

Paul says, ‘ 4 Beloved, now are we the sons of 
God.” That is the thing to believe, not that we 
are sons of the Devil, as we used to think, but sons 
of the Eternal Father, from whose love we never 
can stray. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 249 


With this thought in mind, you are, in God’s 
thought and love, a nobler being than you are at 
present revealing. You have a greater power 
than you are exercising—aye, you can render a 
fuller service to yourself, to man and to God, 
than you have as yet dreamed. 

Thoughts in your heart make deeds in your life. 
The thoughts which you think, made the body 
which you have, and your thoughts do not end 
with the thinking. 

Thought is power, the most resistless power in 
all of the universe and it is puissance in reality, 
for every thought leaves its impress within and 
without. Thought leaves its indelible record 
within the body and builds the external world 
without. 

Tennyson voiced this in his Ulysses, when he 
says, 4 ‘I am a part of all that I have met,” so 
are we a part of our environment, of our asso¬ 
ciation, and of all thought waves making vibrant 
the ether around us.* 

Also all that we have thought becomes a part of 
us, all that others think and that we absorb, be¬ 
comes a part of us. Every evil thought degrades 
us, stains and scars the fibre of our being. Every 

*See chapter on Vibration in Applied Psychology and Scientific 
Living, Vol. 1 in this series. 



250 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


good thought is a new strength and blessing to 
the soul. 

A noble soul is built up by noble thoughts . 

We have had many prophets sent from God in 
all ages. 

Listen to these persuasive words which express 
a great truth and living possibility, a potential 
dynamic power, the appeal of the apostle. 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in 
Christ Jesus.’’ 

Something of that mind which was in Jesus, the 
supreme exemplification of the Divine in man, we 
may have if we ask for it, expect to have it, think 
the thoughts and live the life which express his 
mind. 

“The mind of Jesus was purity, humility, no¬ 
bility, divinity and the mind of Jesus was wise 
with a heavenly wisdom and warm with divine 
love.’ 9 

Anyone can emulate to a higher degree than he 
is now doing, the example of the great teacher. 
A man’s thoughts cannot dwell in an atmosphere 
of goodness without by very contagion becoming 
permeated with divine ambition. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 251 


No Prejudice 

Prejudices of all kind should be dismissed from 
the mind. Make the mind as receptive to the 
understanding of the truth as possible. The more 
open the mind for an understanding, the more 
expectant the attitude, and the stronger the faith 
of the patient, the more speedy will he the results. 

The thought for health, success or happiness 
may readily be made a predominating thought. 
If a person thinks of health fifteen minutes a day 
and the rest of the day is spent in wrong think¬ 
ing, you have some idea of the ratio of good 
results to bad you may expect to get. 

As Thomas Parker Boyd says: 

It is well to remember that a single thought may enter 
into the mind with snch illumination that the ills of the 
body will be shed in a moment, and also that the result of 
years of right thinking may be undone by surrendering to 
the withering effects of a few minutes of the wrong think¬ 
ing that anger and passion can set going. Right thinking 
all the time is the only way. Get the habit. 

The method is as certain as the principles of mathema¬ 
tics, or those of logic. Two plus two never made anything 
else but four, and the whole of anything is equal to the 
sum of all its parts—nothing less and nothing more. You 
are working now in an exact science. Stick to the known 
principles and you will get results. 


Must Have Harmony 

Very often certain members of the household 
have a habit of continual nagging, twitting and 
irritating everyone with whom they come in con¬ 
tact. It is most important that the atmosphere 
thus created be clarified if the peace and harmony 
necessary to health are to prevail. 

Elizabeth Severn, in Psychotherapy gives an 
illustration which is quite apropos: 

I was consulted by the mother of three young children, 
the oldest of whom was nine. She was greatly worried 
because she had discovered they were all more or less sub¬ 
ject to the habit of self-abuse and one of them, a sweet 
little girl of six, very badly indeed. I visited their home 
for the purpose of studying the children without their 
knowledge. I talked to them about their school and other 
interests, and we had a very jolly visit. It was the only 
time I saw them. The treatment consisted, first, in deal¬ 
ing with the mother, whose fears for their welfare were 
greatly exaggerated and very detrimental to the children. 
I had only one talk with her before beginning the treat¬ 
ment, and had to leave immediately afterward for a distant 
city. I sent her silent messages every night at a time 
agreed upon, calculated to put her in a more normal state 
of mind, knowing that if this were accomplished the chil¬ 
dren would soon reflect the change. I also spoke to the 
children, sometimes aloud, calling them by name, and 
affirming that they would be released from their bad 


252 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 253 


habits. Also I tried to see them protected and directed 
from a higher source, making both myself and their 
mother media for this purpose. I had great difficulty in 
restraining the mother from constantly talking about their 
faults and nagging the innocent children, but when she 
succeeded in conquering this bad habit the rest of the cure 
was easy. Weekly letters from her reported first a dimi¬ 
nished indulgence in the habit by all three, and by the end 
of a month a complete freedom from it.* 

Thinking—Eating—Breathing—Exercising 

Before we take up the practical administration 
of methods of healing, it must he thoroughly un¬ 
derstood and the patient must be convinced that 
right thinking is the first step, right eating, the 
second, right breathing the third and exercising 
the fourth. 

The most that any practitioner can do to help 
another is to inspire him with the faith, confi¬ 
dence, expectancy and assurance that he, the 
patient, has within himself the power for healing. 

Unconsciously the patient may rely upon the 
reputation of the healer or may think that the 
healer has the power to heal, which is all very 
true, but after all, it is the faith which the subject 
has in the demonstrator that arouses within him¬ 
self the healing power, the spirit within. 

*For the scientific and practical application of the law of 
absent treatment, see Mental Radio, by the author. 


I 



254 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Method of Healing No. 10 

So each person may do a great deal in helping 
to heal himself, as by hemisphere therapy, charg¬ 
ing the subconscious mind before going to sleep, 
Eating 
Breathing 
Exercising* 

Let him prescribe silent treatment for himself 
during the day, as by becoming passive and 
“holding the thought” of health, (any health 
affirmation in this book will do). 

This kind of self-treatment is, by some people, 
practiced better by talking out loud instead of 
silently, or taking the affirmation in a rather low 
monotone voice. 

Or try walking and with every step keeping the 
mind in rhythm, holding the thought for health, 
such as (mark time) health, life, love, God, health, 
life, love, God. 

Breathe and Think 

Indulge deep breathing, either standing by an 
open window or walking the streets and with each 

*A11 of these have been scientifically and practically handled 
in Practical Psychology and Sex Life. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 255 


breath, breathing in health, taking such affirma¬ 
tions or formulae as 

All divine love is perfection. I am a part of the uni¬ 
versal spirit; the perfect creative power of the universe. 
The perfection of my body shall he made manifest by the 
operation of the perfect spirit of God within me. This 
perfection is manifested in every organ of my body, 
especially in my nose and throat. 

The perfect spirit of the Infinite life-giving power 
sweeps through my nasal cavities, my throat, mouth and 
lungs, cleansing, healing, purifying and vitalizing every 
part. My breathing is easy and complete. I inhale and 
exhale easily. As I inhale I feel the life-giving power of 
healing (inhale as you repeat this), I feel as I exhale the 
outgoing ever-present life of spirit (exhale as you repeat 
this) ; therefore, I inhale (breathe in) and exhale (breathe 
out) life, ease, health and perfection and the ever-present 
spirit of Infinite love makes me well, whole and complete. 

The great universe of God is filled with this life-giving 
presence. The atmosphere and the ether which sustain 
life is permeated with the life of the Infinite. This infi¬ 
nite life-giving spirit of God is in every nook and corner 
of the universe, including every cell, atom, molecule and 
electron of my body, and each time I breathe in the breath 
of life I am inhaling the God spirit of health, harmony 
and strength. Every time I inhale, I inhale the spirit of 
infinite perfection which makes my lungs whole, well and 
complete. 

As I inhale (here the patient inhales) I breathe in 
(inhaling more) the energizing life-giving spirit of God, 
and when I exhale (here the patient exhales) I send out 


256 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 

the God health spirit into the -universal reservoir of 
ethereal power (the patient still exhaling slowly without 
strain); therefore whether I inhale (the patient inhaling) 
or whether I exhale (the patient exhaling) I am breathing 
in the healing power of life and sending out the healing 
thoughts of life perfection. My lungs are therefore built 
over and made to function anew and perfectly in the spirit 
of the Infinite Creator. 

The breath of God (the patient inhaling) sweeps into 
my lungs, health, life and perfection (here the patient 
exhales gently without any strain and should breathe 
deeply, preferably standing by an open window, eight times 
before taking the affirmation again). 

This should be repeated at least 20 times for one treat¬ 
ment and as many times a day as the patient may care to 
repeat. 


The Silence 

Next to charging the subconscious mind just 
before going to sleep at night, the most important 
method of healing in my judgment is practiced in 
the silence. The patient sits in an erect position 
without leaning against the back of the chair, in 
a perfectly relaxed condition, mentally and phys¬ 
ically (see Relaxation in this book), hands resting 
gently in the lap, palms upward, the head erect. 
After holding this attitude, with mind and body 
as passive as is possible for a few moments, bring 
the consciousness up to the forehead, taking your 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 257 


health affirmation such as, “In him I live and 
move and have my being. ” 

Of all things to he considered in right thinking 
relative to health as well as success and happiness 
be sure to get the mind swept of all cobwebs of 
worry, doubt, misgiving, fear and questionings of 
whatever sort they may be about your particular 
healing. 

Elsewhere I have given an absolutely sure cure 
for worry. No one can follow this and have a 
mind upset.* We will not, therefore, take the 
time to dwell upon that topic here. Suffice it to 
say that whatever method you follow, be sure that 
the mind is empty of negative thinking, doubts, 
fear, misgivings, grudge, ill thoughts towards 
others, contention, strife and worry . Add to this 
faith and the patient is ready for healing. 

Reading 

When one considers how many people have 
been sick for years, have spent great sums of 
money and much time trying to effect a healing 
by outside methods, such as medicines and opera¬ 
tions, it is not too much to admonish the reader 
to spend a few days in careful, conscientious and 


See Practical Psychology and Sex Life. 



258 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


faithful introductory reading to prepare the mind 
for healing. 

This is not much to ask of the reader after 
years of fruitless searching and almost unlimited 
spending of money to regain the greatest boon to 
man, his health. 

It has been said by Dr. Woods Hutchinson, the 
worlds great physician writer that eighteen out 
of twenty cases of acute disease can be cured by 
right diet, sunshine, nursing and fresh air. 

We might add to this that probably nine cases 
out of ten of sickness result from improper nutri¬ 
tion and improper elimination.* 

Barring accidents, wrong eating and breath¬ 
ing, lack of fresh air and exercise, and perhaps 
certain contagious diseases, nearly all of our sick¬ 
ness is a matter of mind. 

Our sickness is mostly a matter of the mind. 

Free from Condemnation 

Nowhere in Jesus’ practice as a healer do we 
find him condemning the sick or the sinful. His 
methods are suggested by what he said to the 
leper “Be thou clean.” There was no condem¬ 
nation, no dwelling on the man’s unclean thoughts 

*See What to Eat and Practical Psychology and Sex Life, by 
the author. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 259 


or abnormal habits. “Be thou clean’’ was the sole 
command. 

To the woman taken in adultery, the great Mas¬ 
ter said when he had asked any accuser who was 
without sin to cast the first stone, and they had all 
one by one slunk silently away, “Woman, where 
are those thine accusers? Hath no man con¬ 
demned thee? She said, “No man, Lord.” And 
Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: 
go and sin no more.” 

The world is not healed by condemnation. The 
world is healed by positive assertions, the op¬ 
posite to condemning. We are not healed by har¬ 
boring within our consciousness any self-condem¬ 
nation. When a person says, “I can never for¬ 
give myself for doing that, this or the other. 
How can I have done it? I never can forgive my¬ 
self. It is impossible ever to erase from my 
memory my foolish thoughts of the past,” that 
person is holding self-condemnation thoughts, 
which while held may probably prevent the heal¬ 
ing or any mitigation of his condition from taking 
place. While self-condemnation is in the con¬ 
sciousness of the individual, healing cannot be 
effected. 


“Forget It” 

Many of us have the habit of throwing the 
searchlight of condemnation introspectively into 
the inmost chambers of onr being. This in itself 
will produce sickness. Stop looking perpetually 
inward with the spotlight of self-condemnation 
but begin to look outward with the telescope of 
achievement. Gain self-forgetfulness if you would 
gain health. 

Perhaps we have had a mind of condemnation 
either toward ourselves or others. Sometimes we 
are inclined to condemn all of the same sex as one 
who proves treacherous in some direction. Again 
we may condemn all who have a personal resem¬ 
blance to some enemy or we anathematize all who 
are born under the same planetary conditions as 
the one who does us a wrong. Or possibly we 
have taken up the foolish notion of condemning 
society in general or chafing against our social 
environment in particular or we even indulge in 
the absurd, foolish theological condemnation of 
ourselves for sins of “omission and commission.” 
These condemnations act as self-suggestions 
(auto-suggestions) and implant themselves upon 


260 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 261 

the delicate, photographic plate of the subcon¬ 
scious which in turn creates a poisonous chemical¬ 
ization action in the blood, tissues and secretions 
in the body which often brings on sickness. 

One must ever remember that whether our con¬ 
demnation is for ourselves or others, it has the 
same effect. If the suggestion that we give an¬ 
other an evil thought, is implanted within our 
mind, unconsciously our subconscious weaves into 
our lives the very conditions and experiences that 
we suggest to another. 

Keep It Up 

If the patient has the strength of will to pro¬ 
ceed until he is cured, he will find that the next 
time he exerts himself to overcome some untoward 
condition there will be far less resistance for him 
to overcome. Having once triumphed, the reason¬ 
ing of his objective mind no longer acts as an 
obstruction or counter auto-suggestion but con¬ 
curs in the truth of his suggestions. He then 
possesses both conscious and subconscious faith 
in his powers and finds himself operating along a 
line of no resistance at all. 

The patient will then be able not only to keep 
himself well by suggesting health to himself, but 


262 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


also to suggest health to others meantime adding 
to his own vigor and vitality. Hudson expresses 
it thus: 

The exercise of the power to heal in this way is never 
a tax upon the vital energies of the healer, bnt always 
rebounds to his own benefit as well as to that of the 
patient. The reason of this is obvious. The normal con¬ 
dition of the subjective mind during the sleep of the body 
and the quiescence of the objective faculties is that of con¬ 
stant activity. This activity, under ordinary conditions, 
entails no loss of vital power on the part of the sleeper. 
On the contrary, that is the period of his rest and the 
means of his recuperation. If the activities of his subjec¬ 
tive mind are directed into pleasant channels, his bodily 
rest is perfect, and his recuperation complete. 

—From “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,” by Thomson Jay 
Hudson, Ph.D., LL.D. 

“That old saying, ‘Prevention is better than 
cure/ is as true of mental hygiene as it is of 
physical hygiene. Probably the greatest service 
which the mind can render the body is along the 
lines of preventing disease and maintaining 
health. A healthy and natural state of mind pos¬ 
sesses curative value in various diseases, and the 
abnormal mind is known to be an actual cause of 
certain maladies; nevertheless, it is in the realm 
of prophylaxis (the prevention of disease) that 
the healing influences of the psychic powers figure 
most conspicuously. ’ 7 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 263 


This Is Right 

Some good people seem to think that psychology 
will provide a short-cut to health, wealth, fame 
and happiness, without any effort on the part of 
the individual. They believe, apparently, that if 
you “think,” you have made the only effort nec¬ 
essary. Their “thinking” may be slip-shod, 
haphazard and wobbly at that. 

Some people would like to have health but they 
do not want to do anything of themselves to get 
it. They want to be rich, but they don’t want to 
pay the price of effort, struggle and preparation 
in order to secure riches. They dream of how 
nice it would he to have fame and yet they would 
not work to get it. ‘ ‘ Thinking ’ ’ happiness is their 
obsession so they won’t do anything to have hap¬ 
piness. They would not for the world try to 
please anybody else, or make an effort to he con¬ 
genial, sociable, kind or loving. Just “think” 
happiness and they get it. This is not psychology. 

Many people are willing to be helped if God 
will help them instantly. But if they are sick 
from being gluttons in eating and ought to go on 
a diet, they prefer to take the easier way, the line 
of least resistance and be miraculously healed on 
the spur of the moment, thereafter to continue 


264 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


gluttonous spreeing, their breaking of all natural 
laws, their thinking that they should remain 
healed forever. They want to be well by thinking 
about being well but not by obeying the laws of 
nature. It just “can’t be did.” 

Just to think of abundance and just to think of 
riches, is not a cock-sure formula for securing 
riches. The man who has fame and riches usually 
has paid the price for what he has. He has 
worked like the deuce, plugged to beat the band 
and sweated like a trooper. The easy going crea¬ 
tures seem to forget the words of the great Amer¬ 
ican poet: “The heights by great men reached 
and kept, were not attained by sudden flight; but 
they, while their companions slept, were toiling 
upward in the night.’ ’ 

No! Health, success, fame and happiness do 
not come by thinking alone. They may be won 
only by thinking, plus endeavor, loyalty, integrity, 
efficiency and labor. 

It is a good thing to remember what someone 
has well said—“God will not do anything for us 
which he can do through us” and “God helps 
them that help themselves.” 

God has made it possible for man to breathe, but 
if man does not do his part in getting fresh air, 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 265 


God is not going to work overtime pumping ozone 
for him. God has blessed man with an appetite 
that he might enjoy eating hut God cannot get off 
of the rest of the job of creation to act as a time 
clock and tell the glutton when he must stop. 

“God will not do anything for us which he can 
do through us.” 

Sleep and Rest 

Just because Edison can get along with three or 
four hours’ sleep, is no reason why you should try 
to. I have often been anxious to get the real in¬ 
side facts about Edison’s short hours of sleep- 
how long he keeps up his three or four hours. 
We used to quote Napoleon as keeping the saddle 
three or four days, taking hut a few hours ’ sleep, 
and then we stopped, for the student of history 
knows that after Napoleon’s saddle strenuous¬ 
ness, he would sleep for two or three days at a 
stretch. At that he died in his fifty-second year 
physically worn out. No one yet has been bold 
enough, or fair enough, or if need he, honest 
enough, to tell us when Edison catches up in his 
sleep, if he ever does, but that is neither here nor 
there for the reader. You live your own life, obey 
nature as she beckons to you, never mind how 
somebody else sleeps or works. 


266 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Maybe your rest would be in change of work, or 
a change of environment. Your rest may be in 
reading or traveling, but bear in mind that no 
matter what may be your change, whether in 
work, environment or travel, there must always 
be the right mental attitude. A doctor may pre¬ 
scribe a change of scene for his patient, but if 
the patient doesn’t change his mind, the scene 
won’t do any good. I grant you, the scene may 
help to change the patient’s mind, but I still main¬ 
tain that a change of scene without a change of 
mind is absolutely useless. 

Many ‘ ‘ nervous wrecks ’ ’ who are making a liv¬ 
ing by keeping house for their husbands would 
soon be made over completely by taking a com¬ 
plete day’s rest in bed once a week. And many a 
nervous wreck of a husband, who keeps himself 
busy paying bills for his nervously wrecked wife, 
would be a long way ahead of the game financially 
if he took a week-end’s rest occasionally, away 
from business stress and strain. Eemember, there 
can be no sickness where the body is physically at 
par and mentally poised, and most of the bodies of 
men and bodies of women are below par because 
of lack of rest. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 267 


To get the best results, and that's what every 
reader of this book is after, one should practice 
the silence at least two or three times a day.* 

In addition to this, it would be most advan¬ 
tageous for the patient to lie down at least twenty 
minutes after each meal in complete relaxation, 
close the eyes and think of health, or take one or 
more of the affirmations or formulae which will 
be found in this book and in this series. 

Should you drop off to sleep during these few 
minutes of relaxation, you may know that no 
harm is done—in fact, quite the contrary. You 
have been in a most beneficial condition. 

Do You Love Enough?** 

Sometimes I feel like saying to a sick or unhappy 
patient, “Do you know what is the matter with you, my 
friend? You do not love enough!” 

Naturally I do not often say this, however. The average 
patient of this type like as not would not only be very 
much amazed at such a statement on my part but some¬ 
what indignant. Perhaps he would even question my 
sanity! 

People of this type not only do not understand the seri¬ 
ous effect on the body, mind and life of unlovingness nor 
do they know what love really is. They do not love, and 

*This is outlined very explicitly in “The Silence—What It Is 
and How to Use It,” by the author, 25C. 

**C. Franklin Leavitt, in Mind Power Plus, January, 1923. 



268 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


they do not know how to love, in a real, thorough-going 
way. 

I do not mean by this that such persons have no affec¬ 
tion, that they do not love any one. Usually they do, and 
this is one of the reasons why it would not be easy for 
them to understand this statement, that they “do not love 
enough” Such a man or woman may even tell you, “Why, 
I love too much,” or “too hard,” and “that is what is the 
matter with me.” 

Now, of course, loving could never make anybody sick— 
not real loving. The kind of loving (so-called) which 
must have something back in return can make you sick, of 
course. Real loving, which gives out freely, largely, splen¬ 
didly, as the sun gives out warmth and light—could never 
be anything but healthful to the giver and to the receiver. 

The best way to get a person to realize he should love 
more is to get him into the habit of loving more—perhaps 
by slow degrees and largely unconsciously to himself. As 
he learns to love, he will see for himself what it does for 
him and what has been the matter with him. 

We are so shut up in ourselves—so many of us—in our 
criticisms, judgments, suspicions, sensitiveness and petti¬ 
ness. We need to let go —to let go of all this unlovingness 
and open up, expand and give out LOVE, love which has 
no fear in it, love which holds no demands, love which is 
both gentle and strong, which understands the faulty hu¬ 
manness of us, but which believes in and appeals to the 
Divinity of us. 

By LOVE, I mean substituting for a hard, defiant atti¬ 
tude toward life and people, one of gentleness and un¬ 
derstanding. Love means that one is not critical, fault- 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 269 


finding, censorious or rough; that he will not judge and 
condemn, but that he will be generous, tolerant, unselfish 
and big. Love means that a man will not see the worst in 
people but the best; not the bad but the good. It means 
giving the other fellow the benefit of the doubt, applying 
the Golden Pule, saying nice things about and to people— 
and thinking them. It means realizing that God dwells in 
all men and that all men are brothers. It means that when 
someone does you an injury you will drop all resentment 
and hurt and say to yourself, “He will do better when he 
knows better.” It means feeling the way God feels. 

Such love is the greatest gift one can give the world, and 
the greatest he can make himself. For our own sakes, we 
need to learn to love. 

Unlovingness in the first place is unhealthful. Every 
thought we think and every feeling we feel has its effect 
on the body. Certain kinds of thoughts and feelings are 
harmful to the body. They waste energy which should be 
put to good use. They disturb and disorganize various 
bodily activities. They produce disease. They cause 
death. Sensitiveness, suspicion, intolerance, criticism, con¬ 
demnation, censure, envy, judging, jealousy, hatred, selfish¬ 
ness, the desire to “do” people—these greatly disturb the 
delicate equilibrium of the nerves, thus throwing out of 
balance such activities as digestion, assimilation, elimina¬ 
tion, respiration, circulation, heart action, liver action, etc. 
These emotions create headaches, constipation, rheuma¬ 
tism, indigestion, neuritis, biliousness, catarrh, etc. 

If these feelings were persons, with the harm they do, 
we would long ago have caught them, jailed them, and 
forever put them out of existence. These are the real 


270 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


murderers! And we in our foolish ignorance take them 
into our bosoms and hug them close and offer them our 
very hearts to eat out. 

On the other hand, the love thoughts and emotions send 
real stimulation over the nervous system, assisting it in 
its work, controlling the bodily activities in a normal and 
perfect manner. Love is a real tonic. It sweeps toxins out 
of the body, builds up anew, reawakes, renews, strengthens, 
heals. 

Love will do wonders in our bodies, minds and lives. 
The more we love, the more we are able to love and the 
more we shall find to love. Our faculty of appreciation 
will be developed through loving. The more we express 
love, the more shall we enjoy all beauty. We shall come to 
see the good and the beautiful everywhere. A great sense 
of gratitude will be built up in us and all these feelings 
will be sending deep, strong suggestions into the subcon¬ 
scious, which in turn will more and more firmly build these 
qualities into our bodies, minds and lives. 

Love can do wonderful things in a practical way. An 
Office Manager of my acquaintance, who had a number of 
young girls under her, told me that on those days when 
she felt loving, everything went forward in her office with 
the most wonderful smoothness and harmony, whereas on 
the days when she felt a little hard or peevish or critical, 
she got this back from the girls. We must not forget that 
the good of our loving does not stop with ourselves. Each 
of us is a center of thought force and thought goes out 
from each of us in great waves. Our thought reaches and 
touches and influences the minds of many others. Har¬ 
mony induces harmony and vice versa. Good thoughts do 
good, bad ones do harm. 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 271 


Here is a very subtle form of social responsibility and 
social service. Learn love. It will do us good. It will 
do others good. The world needs people who can love. So 
many hurt us with their lack of understanding, their cold¬ 
ness, hardness, selfishness. There is hardly one of us, I 
imagine, who has not had the experience in one way or 
another of having been “disappointed in love”—of finding 
someone cared less than we thought or needed to have them 
care. 

Because we have had this experience is all the more 
reason why we ourselves should make it a point to love. 

Oh, my friend, there are lonely people, discouraged, 
heart hungry, despairing people to whom this word of 
understanding or sympathy or kindness will mean every¬ 
thing. The lack of it may mean— anything —tragedy 
sometimes. Let us not disappoint our brothers and sisters. 
Let us love! We shall reap nothing but benefit from it. 
Love is not only the most beautiful thing in the world, but 
it is the most practical thing in the world. 


All Healing Psychological 

In all of my public lectures and classes I am at 
pains to be scrupulously delinite in my explana¬ 
tion that all mental healing is a psychological ex¬ 
perience and that many people are not ready for 
healing. When the mind has been educated to 
believe or when the mind by faith believes it can 
be healed, the psychological moment arrives and 
the healing may take place. 

Many people who have never pursued mental 
science, who have not investigated or studied its 
methods of healing, hear perhaps that someone 
else has been healed and instantly expect that 
they ought to have the same demonstration. They 
forget that in many cases the mind has to be pre¬ 
pared for healing. That is why so many prac¬ 
titioners have to see their patients repeatedly 
before they secure a demonstration. It is a 
matter of educating the subject to the psycholog¬ 
ical point, where the healing can take place. 

A patient who had suffered from locomotor 
ataxia for twenty years, who was unable to walk 
without a cane or by leaning on a banister or 
railing had tried many things, both in materia 


272 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 273 


medica and mental science. He had even tried 
Christian Science which he had studied carefully 
for seven years. Some how or other he did not 
have a demonstration in this field and gave up 
much discouraged. He attended our public lec¬ 
tures, and for the first time in twenty years after 
the first lecture “Silence” was able to walk up 
the incline out of the theatre unaided. This, of 
course, greatly encouraged him; it was not long 
before he was running. In our healing class, there 
was much excitement, and do you blame them, 
when a man ran for the first time in twenty years'? 

Helping God to Help Himself 

This man’s healing was due to the fact that 
he helped God to help himself. He was an ardent 
student, and the very first thing he did after 
attending our lectures was to dig into reading 
so that he impregnated his whole mind and soul 
with belief in the healing power of God. 

The first week after he came in contact with our 
system of healing, he attended the theatre and 
felt the old time “lightning pains” returning. In 
locomotor ataxia lightning pains are so called 
because they feel just as lightning looks when it 
flashes and seems as though it would open the 


274 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


horizon. As he felt these pains returning, he 
began to take our familiar formula of Health, Life, 
Love, God, which had previously assisted him to 
ward off those severe pains. This helped him un¬ 
til he reached home, where he began reading of 
Applied Psychology and Scientific Living, and 
within a very short time the pains disappeared. 

This man was ready for healing because he had 
prepared his mind. He was ready — he had paid 
the price — he had studied — he had thought—he 
had prayed — he had mastered Mental Science 
healing. 

4 'Miraculous Healing'’ Dangerous 

I believe one of the most dangerous things 
that could be given to the public is a so-called 
miraculous healing demonstration. People are 
healed not knowing why they are healed under 
influence of the "psychological spree,'’ and when 
the ecstasy is over most of them, I believe, revert. 
They then lose their faith in God, think that God 
has abandoned them, and become worse than 
before. 

They are healed for the time being, but they 
know not why they are healed. They know not 


WHAT PATIENT IS TO DO 


275 


how to take care of themselves, and after the psy¬ 
chological excitement has passed, they revert, go 
back to where they were before, and often become 
still worse. 

Therefore, the patient himself must expect to 
perform his share in being healed and maintain¬ 
ing his healing. There is always a psychological 
time to he healed. We make that psychological 
moment onrselves very often by study, reading, 
thinking, concentrating, visualizing and praying. 

Perhaps, therefore, yon have failed of your 
healing because you have not been ready. 

I insist in my public lectures and to my classes 
that they must do their part toward being healed. 
Some people I heal after they have done scarcely 
anything except to have a faith in God or a faith 
in the healer, hut as a rule it is necessary for 
people to do their part; I mean by that that they 
must not only believe; they must associate with 
people who also believe along these lines; they 
must attend classes or lectures or learn how to 
concentrate and to visualize. They must read, 
study, concentrate, visualize or pray. That is do- 
ing their part to get their mind ready for the psy¬ 
chological moment when the healing can take place. 


276 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Do Something Yourself 

I always caution the great audiences who see 
me give public demonstrations of healing that I 
do not guarantee the people I heal in such meet¬ 
ings will retain their health—no one could guar¬ 
antee that. If negative, inharmonious and wrong 
thinking has produced sickness and I heal a per¬ 
son in a great meeting under the wonderful vibra¬ 
tions of thousands of minds, if that person con¬ 
tinues after the healing to think along these in' 
harmonious and negative lines which have pro¬ 
duced the sickness, there is no doubt but that 
the sickness may return. After the healing takes 
place, it is essential that the one who has been 
healed does something himself to maintain the 
health which has been given to him. By that I 
mean that he must also now do the same as others 
who have been sick and then been healed, namely, 
read along these lines, listen to lectures and 
classes, and associate with people who have faith 
and who can intelligently talk the science of men¬ 
tal healing. 

I believe it is as necessary for most people to 
continue their reading after they have been healed 
as for those that have pursued the reading before 
the healing. We are healed by natural laws. We 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 277 


also maintain onr health by natural laws. God 
does the healing, hut nevertheless we must do 
something ourselves. 

God lets us breathe—He gives us life, but if 
we stop up the inflow of air to the lungs, we shan’t 
live very long. God lets us breathe, hut we do 
our part in breathing. God heals us, hut we must 
also do our part in getting our minds ready for 
the psychological moment for healing and keep 
our minds in that same state, so that we shall not 
revert. 

Preconceived Ideas 

Ideally speaking, to become as receptive as a 
little child is to have the right mental attitude for 
immediate mental healing, but, as mentioned else¬ 
where, the conditions, as a rule, become more com¬ 
plex as we ascend in the scale of intelligence. So, 
when you meet a person who has preconceived 
ideas about mental healing or is prejudiced 
against mental science, if he has a fair share of 
the reflective and reasoning faculties, or is a stu¬ 
dent of philosophy, graduate of a university or is 
a deep student of human nature and still skep¬ 
tical, we have found it very easy to convert such 


an one. 


278 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


All healing is scientific and, when we strip it of 
its mysterious or miraculous religo-ignorant ef¬ 
fort to explain the “divine,’’ it is easily under¬ 
stood. 

It is just as easy to heal and as easy to un¬ 
derstand healing as any other scientific procedure. 
Every case of mental healing is as scientific as 
Euclid. 

You will have no difficulty in arousing the inter¬ 
est of the skeptical observer by directing his atten¬ 
tion to what has been done from a readily un¬ 
derstood, practical demonstration of healing. 

Always explain to the patient that our bodies 
are made up of electricity. Science says that 
nearly everything is probably not only vibration 
but electrical. We have so much electricity in our 
own bodies that a mechanical device can be used 
to show electrical rays shooting from the tips of 
the fingers. 

This body of ours, when it is out of harmony 
and sick, can be charged by electricity just the 
same as a magneto can be charged from a dynamo. 

Electric wires stretched on poles are no account 
for telegraphic communication unless the electric 
current he shot into them. If we apply magnetic 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 279 


healing* we literally pass the human electricity 
from healthy, magnetized bodies into the sick per¬ 
son, very often bringing instant healing with the 
same apparent speed as the dynamo sends the 
electric current into the wire/ 

Blessings on the Skeptical 

If one is skeptical about mental healing, it is 
no doubt the result of prejudiced ideas that heal¬ 
ing is in some way or other connected with the 
“miraculous’’ or the “uncanny/’ Therefore, the 
old idea of orthodoxy and religious ignorance will 
have to be uprooted from man’s consciousness be¬ 
fore he may accept any explanation relative to 
healing by mind. 

Discussion about God is always a most inter¬ 
esting topic to any one, especially a skeptic who 
is sick and has sought help from many sources and 
not received it. Therefore, if the practitioner is 
familiar with the chapter in “Applied Psy¬ 
chology and Scientific Living” on “What Is 
God?” he will have no difficulty in arousing the 
attention, interest and co-operation of any person 
who is seeking health. 


*In “Practical Psychology and Sex Life,” by the author. 



280 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


After we have made our inroad into the con¬ 
sciousness of man by “What Is God?” this should 
be followed by the chapters in the same hook on 
“The Subconscious Mind” and “The Law of 
Suggestion.” You now have cleared away the 
tares of orthodoxy so that the seed for healing 
may he implanted.* This should then he followed 
by the chapters on the “Subconscious Mind” in 
“Practical Psychology and Sex Life,” the chap¬ 
ter on “Music and Healing,” and chapters on 
“Psycho-Therapeutics” in the same book. Then 
much science and inspiration will be obtained from 
the pages following in “Will Power and Success.” 

The skeptic will, of course, be interested to know 
what he has to do to effect the healing. In the 
majority of cases the person to he healed must do 
his part, which, probably, is the biggest part in 
healing. There is no reason, however, for the 
assumption sometimes made that all healing is 
really self-healing. All healing is suggestion, one 
way or the other, which has been thoroughly dis¬ 
cussed elsewhere in this series. Whether this 
be aroused by the desire to he healed, by faith in 
the healer or practitioner, or by the various meth- 

*These are all in the healing section of Practical Psychology 
and Sex Life. 



WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 281 

ods used, such as magnetic healing, hetero-sugges¬ 
tion, electrical healing, the silence, double hetero¬ 
suggestion, or hemisphere therapy does not 
matter. It may he that the patient has such faith 
in a certain healer that just to think of that 
practitioner will restore health. 

Healing One’s Sdlf 

For instance, I know of a woman who was sick, 
was taken violently ill, and yet healed herself by 
just thinking of a certain psychological teacher, 
living remote from her. At times the sufferer is 
healed by silent treatment given by someone in 
another part of the world. Indeed, suggestion 
often operates when the subjects become en rap¬ 
port at twelve o’clock noon when they know there 
are thousands of others in silence at the same time. 
The faith that the person has in the healing vibra¬ 
tions of others arouses latent power within him by 
auto-suggestion, of healing until actually healed. 

Again the healing takes place by touching the 
religious mainspring of the healer by way of 
“ spirituality.” 

Method of Healing No. 11 

Terry Walter, M. D., in the “ Handbook of 
Life,” gives the simple, scientific reason and 
method for helping one’s self: 


282 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In order to raise your vibrations to such a rate and 
character that you can believe that whatever you can ideal¬ 
ize can come true, spend fifteen minutes a day alone, re¬ 
laxed, passive, and receptive to your own best thoughts for 
health. When you are thoroughly relaxed, breathe deeply, 
imagining that as you inhale the free, pure air of nature 
that you are filling your lungs with an energy condensed 
from all the vibrations mingled in the ether, and realize 
that you receive and contact vibrations of the very degree 
that you send out by your own magnetism; confident 
expectancy of health raises the vibration and immediately 
brings you in contact with the health-giving influences 
about you. As soon as you are quiet, comfortable and 
smiling, filled with joy at the prospect of recuperation and 
expectancy of perfect health, rest your fingers on the top 
of your head and gently pass them over your face, your 
neck, arms, at the same time sending to your subconscious 
mind a blueprint impression of the perfect condition of 
cell structure that you expect. Likewise, mentally massage 
your whole body from head to foot until you feel a wave 
of strength and health surge from within. When you arise 
your mirror will tell you how well you have succeeded. 

Heredity 

I have mentioned elsewhere in this volume that 
many conscientious religious people are more sus¬ 
ceptible to wrong vibrations which cause sickness 
sometimes than others. Elizabeth Severn agrees 
with this, to-wit: 


WHAT PATIENT HAS TO DO 283 


Many people are also suffering from an excessive and 
diseased conscience, leading to hardness and contraction. 
What they need to take its place is consciousness—a very 
different thing. All the repressed emotions, such as envy 
and resentment, destroy the beauty and usefulness of the 
mind as the worm destroys the rose. All weakness, such 
as lack of moral courage or the absence of the resiliency 
which causes a rebound after each hard battle with Fate, is 
a serious detriment to the maintenance of physical har¬ 
mony and equilibrium; and until the healer can free his 
own mind from such things as these and fill his whole con¬ 
sciousness with Peace and Harmony, he is in no condition 
to act as the pilot to lead his patients through dangerous 
seas into safety. 

One of the biggest bugbears for preventing some 
good people from the healing is heredity. Let the 
reader bear in mind that heredity is one of the 
most discussed questions not yet settled, especially 
in som& diseases, like cancer, tuberculosis, syphi¬ 
lis, etc. The majority of evidence seems to point 
that these diseases are not hereditary. Be that as 
it may, this is the one big thing for the patient to 
bear in mind (and with many people this alone 
will be enough to effect a cure). Heredity repre¬ 
sents tendencies only and those tendencies are not 
imperative. 

If you receive a premonition through the intuitive 
perception of the subjective mind, or the astrologer, in 
casting your horoscope, predicts dire disaster at a certain 


284 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


period, and in either case or by prediction from any source 
you accept this foreknowledge as inevitable, then, as I 
have previously stated; you are a fatalist. 

Heredity points to yonr tendencies only, but 
these tendencies are not necessarily to be devel¬ 
oped. In other words, yon can easily overcome 
hereditary tendencies for ill health, bad habits, 
mental weaknesses, insanity, etc. 

There is a law in life controlling everything, so 
neither height, nor depth, principalities, nor 
powers, environment nor heredity can keep yonr 
own from coming to you. 


PREPARING THE MIND FOR 
HEALING 


Who Is Healed? 


As already said the ignorant and superstitions 
are often healed easier than the enlightened, the 
cultured, and the refined, because the former are 
more credulous, do not reason from cause to effect, 
but jump at a conclusion, especially where 
shrouded in mystery and religious parlance. 

From the point of view of intellectual activity, it is 
more difficult to find inner center and realize the power 
within. The intellect is apt to raise objections and to 
seek all the reasons for snch a proceeding. Up until very 
recently the reasons given for mental healing in many 
sources and cults has been a most jumbled affair. They 
really were more or less in the dark. They had healings 
but they knew not why and so we have run the whole 
gamut of unreasonable “reason” in explaining how the 
mind heals all the way from denying the existence of sin 
and matter to the religious finality of thus saith the Lord 
and it is done. Done by the power of God and that is all 
anybody should expect to know. 

The main thing is faith, and if a person can have 
explicit faith, and expectant attention, the whole 
being is governed by this fixity of attention. 


285 




286 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Get Knowledge 

The practitioner who draws to himself the 
greatest degree of respect in his community and 
acquires the most extensive practice is the one 
who will have to he able to cope with the highest 
intelligence in his community. Not only must he 
be able to put himself on the mental plane of the 
one who has had no education or culture, but he 
must be able to associate on equal terms with 
those who have enjoyed the best social advantages 
and intellectual training. 

To be able to heal the ignorant is easy. The 
world is filled with so-called miraculous healers 
who appeal to the superstitions and primitive in 
the lower types of mentality and they appear after 
a fashion, to be getting results. Their cures, how¬ 
ever, result chiefly from the fact that there are 
more people who do not think than who do think. 
Nevertheless the healer who gets the respect of 
the community and finally the most lucrative prac¬ 
tice is the one who can both step down to the 
mental consciousness of the uneducated, and climb 
up to the heights of the intelligent. 

Day by day to instruct patients of higher intel¬ 
lectual development would not only be one of the 


PBEPABING THE MIND 


287 


joys of your life, but one of the achievements of 
your practice. 

The thinking person may not at first agree with 
the power of mind to heal, so it is up to you, fel¬ 
low practitioner, in the majesty and dignity of 
your office, patiently and wisely to present your 
cause of the power of mind to heal to the edu¬ 
cated skeptic, who may be sitting on the fence, in 
such a manner as to win him. Win him to your 
confidence, win him to your belief, win him to your 
method of healing. 

So, the more intelligent the person, the more 
necessary it may be in most cases to proceed with 
the regular program of re-education of that per¬ 
son to your way of thinking. 

The effect will be the greater, the less the barriers of 
systematic knowledge hinder the entrance of suggested 
ideas. The uneducated will, on the whole, offer less re- 
sistence to suggestion, just as superstitions find the freest 
play in the minds of the untrained. It is not by chance 
that the earlier epidemics of pathological suggestibility 
have on the whole disappeared with the better popular 
education. In a similar way work fatigue and exhaustion. 
The resistence has grown weaker, the suggested idea goes 
automatically into activity. 

You may, if you choose, speak to your patient 
in somewhat the way that Pitzer recommends, as 
follows: 


288 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


How to Do It 

We must recognize the wonderful power of thought. 
Thought is not a mere indefinite abstraction; it is a vital, 
living force, a thing, for it can be appreciated by the 
senses, and whatever can be thus realized is a thing. And 
it is the most powerful and wonderful of all things, for 
every other thing in this world, and the world itself, had 
their origin in thought. Every house that was ever built 
had its origin in the mind of the one who built it. It is 
thought that moves our bodies. And more, it is mind that 
originates, moulds, builds and controls the material, human 
form. Every atom, molecule and cell in the body is formed 
and controlled by mentation. Every cell that moves in our 
bodies does so under the influence of the mental force 
imparted to it. Without the presence of mind the body 
is motionless, and responds in no way to any efforts that 
we may make. 

But it is also true that, while perverted mental activities 
certainly produce functional and organic diseases, properly 
directed thoughts are always conducive of conditions of 
health. Hope, good cheer, happy surroundings, the confi¬ 
dent expectation of good things, the emotions of love, 
kindness, benevolence and good-will, all stimulate a healthy 
flow of the bodily secretions, and under their influence the 
life forces go bounding through the body, and absolutely 
counteract, effectively, the disease-giving effects of de¬ 
pressing and corroding thoughts of every kind. From all 
this we deduce the great, practical fact that various mental 
states, emotions, passions, have their peculiar effects upon 
the body, and in order to become able to prevent, relieve, 
and cure diseases, it is only necessary for us to learn and 


PREPARING THE MIND 


289 


become familiar with the laws controlling these great 
forces and how to command and apply them; when we can 
do this, success is certain. We can then absolutely heal 
the sick, console the disconsolate, give hope and courage 
to the weak and faint-hearted, reclaim the inebriate, 
reform the vicious and reckless, and with all this we will 
be able to control and save ourselves. 

We undertake to demonstrate that we actually have two* 
minds, and by showing that they functionate separately 
we think we have succeeeded in our effort. Then we 
assert that we not only have two minds that functionate 
separately, but that they have, in some particulars, 
entirely different attributes; that the objective mind can 
reason both inductively and deductively, while the sub¬ 
conscious mind can reason deductively only. If asked how 
we know this, we only have to bring a proper subject for¬ 
ward and demonstrate it. Here is the man. He is wide 
awake. I tell him to close his eyes and remain awake; that 
I am going to place a five-dollar gold piece in his hand. 
He closes his eyes and while his eyes are closed, instead 
of putting a five-dollar gold piece in his hand I place a 
nickel in it, and tell him to close his hand upon it. He 
closes his hand upon the coin, then I ask him to open his 
eyes, which he does, and says he is wide awake, which is 
true. Now I tell him that there is a five-dollar gold piece 
in his hand, and for him to open his hand and he will 
see it. He opens his hand, sees the coin, looks at it, turns 
it over and over, and then says it is only a nickel; that I 
had told him it was a five-dollar gold piece, but when I 
come to see it the facts gathered from the coin itself show 
me that it is only a nickel. First, it has the color of a 


290 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


nickel; that is one fact. Second, it has the letter “V” on 
it, and immediately under this letter I read “cents,” which 
means five cents. From these facts 1 know that it is a 
nickel. 

Now, here is inductive reasoning—the collation of facts 
—to identify the nickel. Now, we will put this same man 
to sleep, place his objective mind in abeyance by sugges- 
tion. We will say he is asleep. I place the same nickel in 
his hand, and while he is yet sound asleep I tell him that 
I have placed a five-dollar gold piece in his hand, and 
that if he will open his eyes he will see it. He opens his 
eyes, looks at the coin, and I say to him, that’s a five-dollar 
gold piece, is it not ? He answers, “Yes, that’s a five-dollar 
gold piece.” I ask him if he is sure that it is a five-dollar 
gold piece, when he answers, “Yes, I know it is a five- 
dollar gold piece.” When I ask him how he knows it is a 
five-dollar gold piece, he says he knows it because it is 
yellow, the color of gold, that it is heavy like gold, and 
that it is a five-dollar gold piece. 

Now this is deductive reasoning only. From the major 
premise, which I give him, that the coin is gold, by deduc¬ 
tion, he tries to prove that the coin is gold, and he sees 
and details what he had previously learned the qualities 
of gold to be. He searches for no facts, but absolutely 
takes the suggestion I give him and reasons from that, 
deductively. And we may test the subjective mind all- 
day and it will never, absolutely cannot reason inductively. 
All it knows, it either inherits or has thrust upon it; it 
learns nothing by inductive processes. This is a faculty of 
the objective mind only. 

After demonstrating all these things we go on and show 
that the subjective mind absolutely controls the silent 


PREPARING THE MIND 


291 


functions of the body, and that we can reach it by sug¬ 
gestion for the relief and cure of people suffering from 
diseases and vices. 

The more reasonable the knowledge imparted 
to or existing in the conscious mind so will be the 
effect of suggestion; the more completely the con¬ 
scious mind co-operates and consents, the more 
speedy the results. 

Other Authority 

In the “Law of Mental Medicine” the author 
makes it clear why some people, especially those 
who are on a higher intellectual plane, may not be 
healed so easily as others. 

Resistance to suggestions from extraneous sources arises 
from auto-suggestions having their origin in various emo¬ 
tions, such as the primordial instincts (as of self-preserva¬ 
tion, love of offspring, etc.), settled moral principles, sen¬ 
sitiveness to ridicule, fixed habits of thought, or love of 
scientific truth. This includes resistance to suggestions 
which are in obvious contravention of reason, experience, 
or the evidence of the senses. 

Resistance to the last-named suggestions is proportioned 
to the intelligence of the subject, and hence it is often 
overcome by persistence, especially when accompanied by 
promises of resultant benefits, as in certain methods of 
mental healing. 

It follows that while the faith that is required to make 
therapeutic suggestions effective is primarily the faith of 


292 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the subjective mind, nevertheless suggestions are most 
potent when they are not antagonized by any resistance 
whatever, either intellectual or emotional. Hence it is that 
suggestions which are based upon scientific truth, other 
things being equal, are necessarily the most potent in their 
influence and permanent in their effects. As in all the 
other relations of human life, truth is mightier than error 
or falsehood, and it is the condition precedent to all 
permanent good. 

The wise and sympathetic practitioner will al¬ 
ways bear in mind 

Persons of keener intellects and finer sensibilities will 
suffer the ravages of grief, discouragement, and morbid 
views of any bodily ills, more than those differently organ¬ 
ized. Those more highly organized, and with keener minds 
are more responsive in everything, unless self-trained to 
composure and control. Such persons, by giving attention 
to their subjective training, will bring the bodily functions 
readily under control. 

The healer must bear in mind, still another type 
of person who must be re-educated—the man or 
woman who is prejudiced against mental healing. 


Prejudice Is a Hindrance 

This kind of a person, as a rule, is prejudiced 
against anything, it is just his “streak,’’ of 
nature. He is “agin” a thing just to be “agin” 
it. As an individual he needs longer private tu¬ 
toring with a greater amount of patience on the 
part of the healer, than any other type. Do not 
lose courage. You will win in time if you do not 
give up. It is merely pitting your resolution 
against the stubborn prejudice of the patient. If 
you can be bigger in mind and spirit than he, you 
will win. If you lose, I let you be the judge of 
what you are. 

On the other hand, persons of open and frank 
mind who are not given to strong prejudices will 
also be the ones to derive the earliest good from 
auto-suggestion. It is because they take no radical 
stand against the idea, hut rather occupy neutral 
ground and follow out with patience and persist¬ 
ence the principles which they are being taught. 

Why We “Hold a Thought” 

Many a skeptical person will not see the neces¬ 
sity, much less the virtue, in taking just a thought 
for healing. If you were to tell that person “I 


293 


294 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


rule the body” he may be a gentleman and not 
tell yon what he thinks of you but he may think a 
whole lot. Patience must be exerted and time 
spent in gaining the confidence of this person and 
instilling him with hope and faith. 

He may not be able to understand why you take 
an affirmation such as “all of the organs of my 
body are functioning normally and I am well, 
whole and complete” when he knows he has a 
backache. 

Disarm this man of his skepticism at once by 
telling him that he is not denying sickness, neither 
is he “kidding” himself that he is not sick when 
he knows he is sick. 

To affirm we have control of the body and that 
“we are well, whole and complete” is only affirm¬ 
ing that which every thinking person must be¬ 
lieve ; namely, that within each individual there is 
something more than material, something more 
than the body—spirit. That which keeps our 
bodies walking around and our mouths going and 
our eyes going and our ears hearing, is something 
more than material. It is mental—spirit. This is 
the God power within or in other words the God 
spirit. 


PREPARING THE MIND 


295 


Spirit Is Always Well 

This God spirit, of course, is well; it is whole 
and it is complete. What is wrong with us is our 
physical machinery. Our bodies are out of whack. 
The flesh has a few thorns in it and knows it but 
the eternal spirit of the Infinite is well, whole and 
complete. 

The highest flights of imagination could not con¬ 
ceive of God being sick, God is all abundance, all 
heath, all joy, all happiness, all love, all peace, this 
God spirit is within you. Therefore, we have the 
spirit of God within which is well. It is the body 
that is out of order. 

Jesus tried to explain this to his disciples on 
many occasions as recorded in the fourteenth and 
seventeenth chapters of the Gospel according to 
St. John in which he said: “I and the Father are 
one and again I am in Him and He in me and I in 
you”—inferring that he and the Father were in 
the disciples. Of course, he meant the same spirit 
was in all. This spirit is well. 

Any thinking person can readily catch this idea 
of health and sickness so when we take a positive 
affirmation that we are well, whole and complete, 
we are telegraphing to every cell in our body 
instantly the constructive thought of health which 


296 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


in turn produces a restoration to normal function¬ 
ing of the organs out of kilter. 

If a person has had the privilege of culture or 
education or is skeptical from any other reason, 
by making the laws of healing scientifically simple 
is to win the confidence and faith which cannot so 
readily be done if un-understandable silent treat¬ 
ments are given to the patient, and the patient is 
ignorant or skeptical as to just what is going on. 

Of course, you have had it impressed upon you 
elsewhere that the patient is not to rehearse his 
symptoms and describe afresh day by day his 
troubles, fears and mental pictures connected with 
his illness. You will make this clear and explicit 
for the past is past and the patient should be con¬ 
cerned only with the present and the future. So 
that when the 4 Hess up” has been “fessed” and 
the mind unburdened and the understanding of 
the “kink” is plain we do not then dwell upon the 
past which has brought this into our lives but we 
take a counter suggestion at stated times, so that 
we crowd out the old sick thought instead of enter¬ 
taining it. We get off of the mental hose of erro¬ 
neous thinking so that the spirit of health can 
flow in. We eliminate compression which has been 


PREPARING THE MIND 


297 


keeping the sick thoughts so that the sick thoughts 
fly out and the health thoughts are given instead. 

Another Type to Deal With 

There is another type of man, another type of 
patient the healer will have to deal with and that 
is the one who not only does not believe that he 
can be healed but tells you so. 

Henry Harrison Brown in ‘ ‘ Self-Healing 
Through Suggestion, ’ ’ nails this kind of a fellow 
squarely 4 4 on the head *’ when he says: 

“But if I do not believe?” you ask. Then I wrote this 
book for you. Do as the scientist does. Accept for the. 
time, what it tells you as Truth, and experiment to see if 
it be true. Accept the statement . . . “Thought is Power” 
... as truth, and work upon it in your own person, until 
you demonstrate it to be true. The discoverer of telegraphy 
believed he could send a message. He experimented until 
he knew he could. “If I can send a spark ten feet, I can 
seind it around the world!” he said. In like manner you 
are to work. “If I stop my circulation when I fear, I can 
accelerate it under faith!” be your thought. Then learn 
how to do it, and you are healed. Assume all I tell you as 
Truth, act upon it as if it were Truth, and by demonstra¬ 
tion learn that it is Truth. 

Or again, I recommend that yon follow the rea¬ 
soning of Pitzer, or follow Atkinson’s method in 
“Mind Power”: 


298 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Mind-Power is positive to both force and matter, and 
the negative always yields to the positive when the latter 
is properly and intelligently applied. Mind-Power really 
builds up the body from a single cell, and is inherent in 
every part and particle of the body. Every cell has its 
supply of Mind-Power—the cell, and combination of cells, 
and the whole body in fact, is the result of conditions of 
manifestations of Mind-Power. The body is all mind, at 
the last analysis. Mind-Power manifests itself in count¬ 
less ways in the universe, and the physical bodies, and the 
cells of which they are composed are simply certain forms 
of manifestation of its force. And, this being so, mental 
healing is not a case of “mind over matter/’ as is often 
taught, but is a manifestation of positive mind over nega¬ 
tive mind. The central mind of man is positive to the 
mind in the body of man, and hence the healing effect. 

Cell Minds Again 

Every cell has its share of mind, and science shows us 
that each cell can and does live its life as a separate entity, 
always, however, subordinate to the whole system of cells, 
and the mind controlling it. And the mind in each cell, 
or system of cells, may be reached by the positive mind 
of a person, when properly applied. In order to fully 
grasp the significance of this statement, you must remem¬ 
ber that every organ, part, bone, nerve, vessel, tissue and 
everything else in your body, is built up of cells which 
have formed certain combinations. There are individual 
cells in your blood and other parts of the body; and there 
are cell communities in your body, which perform certain 
functions and which you call “my liver,” “my heart,” “my 


PREPARING THE MIND 


299 


stomach,” “my kidneys,” etc., etc. And there is mind in 
every one of them. And the mind in every cell, and in 
every organ may be reached by Mind-Power applied by 
the mind of oneself or another person. 

This little simple explanation of ether has 
served many in good stead. On many an occasion 
this may prove to be the most persuasive form of 
appealing to your patient. 

We Live in an Ocean of Ether 

Man lives in this world, living and moving and 
having his being, in an ocean of ether. We are 
like a lot of little ants, crawling around the sur¬ 
face of the earth, breathing and inhaling this ether 
like fish swim in the ocean. 

This ether gives us life. It is now believed that 
this ether is electricity. Therefore, the more elec¬ 
tricity we can get into our bodies one way or an¬ 
other, the more do we become an at-one-ment with 
the divine force. 

Nothing, therefore, can really separate us from 
God— the great Universal life that is in us, 
through us, about us, and above us. Universal 
love that floods our being whenever we will open 
to it. 

Thought Currents 

It is scientifically understood now that man is 
ever receiving and passing out thought currents, 


300 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and the character of the currents determine the 
condition of his body and his environment. You 
can illustrate this in five minutes even with the 
the most skeptical; for instance to show that we 
can receive thought currents of depression, ask 
the patient to take with you such a thought as 
this, “I am feeling badly, everything’s gone 
wrong. I have lost my pep. What's the use of 
striving anyhow! It is not for me to have health. 
Others can but impossible for me. The whole 
world is out of joint and I don’t care whether the 
school keeps or not. ’ ’ 

If the healer will take such a thought with the 
patient, giving expression of despondency in a 
monotone voice, in more or less of a slow move¬ 
ment, in five minutes the patient is bound to feel 
squirmy and more sick and disgusted and des¬ 
pondent and wish to goodness he had never heard 
of a mental healer. Then take just the opposite 
thought for the same length of time, “I am feel¬ 
ing better. The world’s all right. Everything’s 
working together for my good. This has come 
into my life for my own training and schooling 
and I am happy to know it is a thing of the past. 
I am permeated with a spirit of cheerfulness, 
optimism, goodwill and love. There can be noth- 


PREPARING THE MIND 


301 


ing in this world but good for me and for mine. 
Health, success and happiness are now in my pos¬ 
session and I am happy to know that sickness is 
only irregular functioning of natural laws and 
that I now have control of these laws by my think¬ 
ing and living and health is mine.” 

It is easy to understand something of the forces we are 
using. We must remember that spirit, mind and substance 
spell life, and that life is perpetuated by means of an 
energy found in the body of every living thing. It pervades 
all space and has many manifestations. Science calls it 
electrical energy; in the animal and the vegetable we call 
it the life force, or vital force; the Yogi calls it prana; 
but call it what you will, God, evolution, force, Divine 
mind, prana, or simply life, it is found in the air, water 
and food, and all living organisms absorb it. The prin¬ 
ciples of life can be transmitted from one person to an¬ 
other in many ways. And when you are giving your life 
forces to another, it is simply life giving to life. Greater 
love than this hath no man. 

Law of Attraction 

This is the law of attraction and repulsion, elec¬ 
tric and magnetic, positive and negative. When 
we connect the positive and negative currents in 
electricity we have illumination, heating power, 
according to the rate at which we turn it on. And 
the law is one on all planes so that as we have the 


302 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 

capacity to turn on the current of thought force, 
we have the power to become masters of our sub¬ 
stance. 

Mary C. Ferriter in “Truth’’ continues our line 
of argument in this fashion: 

We absorb the vital energy with every breath; it is the 
breath of the Almighty that giveth ns life. We are liter¬ 
ally charged with vital force, and it is by our thought 
force, our attitude of mind, that we tune up life in the 
human body to become what we wish it to be; for we are 
the picture of our predominant thoughts. We have health 
or we have disease according to our thoughts. All parts of 
our being are supplied by mind and emotion. It is in the 
emotions that chronic disease originates, and all morbid 
suggestions of neglect, injustice, repression and disappoint¬ 
ment are registered because of morbid feelings and emo¬ 
tions. Acute diseases are brought on by dynamic thoughts 
and actions, having their origin in the mind. Fear is 
frequently the cause of congestion in the body; and in the 
chemical laboratory in Washington it has been proved that 
states of mind cause chemical actions in the blood, and 
that different thoughts produce different poisonous gases 
and chemicals. Fear is frequently a cause of heart dis¬ 
order. While congestion is a fundamental cause of disease, 
it often results from paroxysms of anger or hatred. 
Thoughts of criticism, envy, jealously or hatred may cause 
cancerous growths, while tuberculosis often results from 
repression and disappointment. Kidney trouble sometimes 
arises from a secret weighing on the conscious mind. 
Advertisements of medicines are powerful suggestions and 


PREPARING THE MIND 


303 


often cause people to believe that they have certain ail¬ 
ments. As a matter of fact, mind is the creator and may 
be the removing cause, of 90 per cent of all disease. Spirit, 
the healing power, works through the mind. Auto-Sugges¬ 
tion is the most powerful suggestion there is. 


Reading 

It is as necessary for the healer to direct the 
patient to systematic reading as it is to try to re¬ 
educate him through private talks and explana¬ 
tions. Furthermore, it is much better that the 
practitioner make an outline of just what the 
patient should read, how much he should read and 
when he should read. This applies to the ordinary 
patient. 

I have found in my vast experience also that the 
most successful way is not to let the patient pur¬ 
sue too many lines of reading at a time. I mean 
by this not to give the patient New Thought books 
and Divine Science books and the various species 
of psychological books on healing all at once. As 
we have said in the preface to this series there 
are some sixty or more brands of psychology, 
whose disciples all respectively contend they have 
the only truth and the only way to heal. If you 
are having a successful demonstration with your 
patient and you begin to mix his mental ‘ ‘ drinks ’ 7 
his mind will become so befogged and bemuddled 
and fooled that he won’t know where he stands. 
After you have got your patient well grounded in 

304 


PREPARING THE MIND 


305 


the one or more methods which yon are teaching 
and the patient through having mastered the books 
you have recommended, has got a firm grasp upon 
the faith to heal then educate him to the more 
liberal policy of getting truth from every angle. 
Recommend freely books by the more radical or 
conservative writers but above everything be the 
guardian as well as the director of your patient’s 
reading. 

I am speaking as one having authority, if you 
will allow me to say so, for in our great campaigns 
where we heal people by the hundreds we always 
find some of the jealous kind around, little teach¬ 
ers who would like to put on campaigns of the 
magnitude of ours if they only could. Not being 
able to do so, they ride on the wave of our great 
healing movement and now and then snatch a few 
people from the rim of our wide circle by telling 
them that they have all of the truth. We have 
had many an honest patient come back to us all 
disturbed after having been healed of various dis¬ 
eases, and upset in mind and body, because some 
other practitioner has said he had the truth and 
without following his method the healing could not 
be effected. 


306 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


I write this because I feel convinced I am only 
giving fatherly advice and the counsel of wisdom 
when I admonish the liberal practitioner to be on 
his guard to protect himself from the narrow¬ 
minded conservative. There are plenty of “ all- 
healers” in the world. 

In my judgment one of the greatest services 
that can be rendered to mankind is to help educate 
and lead this generation from narrow dogmatic 
conservatism to a broader vision of co-operative 
and non-competitive living and thinking, including 
mind healing. To do this it is incumbent upon the 
teacher and the healer to guide and guard his 
babes in healing land. 

It is safe to assert that ninety-nine and one-half 
of the healers out of a hundred believe they have 
the only way. You belong to the half of the one 
hundredth who believe that there are various 
ways or you would not be reading this book. Your 
most serious duty is to get your patient to reach 
a breadth of liberality that will enable him also to 
believe in the various methods. Guide him in his 
reading along these lines. 

Six Great Words in Mental Healing 

No one can approach the sacred altar of heal¬ 
ing without realizing he is standing on sacred 


PREPARING THE MIND 


307 


ground. One of the most essential things to bear 
in mind to effect a healing and then make it per¬ 
sist is to love everybody.* Remember what Christ 
said, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the 
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother 
hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift be¬ 
fore the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled 
to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” 
Matthew 5:23-4. 

The vital instrumentality in healing, the big¬ 
gest word in the vocabulary of mental therapeu¬ 
tics is Faith. 

The second greatest word in the language of 
mental science is Repetition. (That is, if at first 
you don’t succeed, try, try again.) Repeat your 
affirmations and your healing treatments, for the 
results are bound to come. 

In this respect remember how Jacob wrestled 
all night with the angel before the angel blessed 
him. I suppose he could have blessed Jacob at the 
beginning of the wrestling, but he didn’t do it. 
It was necessary for the spiritual nature of Jacob 
to undergo a long siege. It may be because of 
your particular temperament, that you need the 
necessary schooling of a week or two or further 

*See Practical Psychology and Sex Life. 



308 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


repetition so that you will not revert. (Of course, 
this may or may not be true.) 

Repetition, resolutely continuing in the thought, 
growing in the faith, is most, most essential. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatso¬ 
ever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what¬ 
soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what¬ 
soever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philip- 
pians 4: 8. 

The third great word in the arch of mental 
healing is Forgiveness. 

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall 
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven 
times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until 
seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18: 
21 , 22 . 

The fourth stone in the arch of mental healing 
is Thanksgiving. Thank God that you have your 
health now. Thank God for happiness. Thank 
God for perfect harmony. Thank God for abund¬ 
ance now. Whatever you want, be sure to offer 
thanks now. 

The fifth in the red lettered alphabet of mind 
healing is Gratitude. The one who is healed must 
reach that consciousness where he can daily offer 
thanksgiving and gratitude for all that he has 
already received, for all he expects to receive and 


PREPARING THE MIND 


309 


for all lie will receive. Remember there was one 
leper out of the ten healed, who came back to 
thank the greatest of healers. 

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him 
ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 

And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, 
have mercy on us. 

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go, shew 
yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as 
they went, they were cleansed. 

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, 
turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 

And fell down on his face at his feet, givihg him thanks: 
and he was a Samaritan. 

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? 
but where are the nine? 

There are not found that returned to give glory to God, 
save this stranger. 

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath 
made thee whole. Luke 17: 12-19. 

The sixth greatest word in healing is LOVE. 

And finally, in preparing the mind for healing, 
remember the words of the Master, when ye pray: 

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the 
heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for 
their much speaking. 

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your father 
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 
Matthew 6: 7, 8. 


310 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In the Beginning 

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he went 
into the synagogue in his little town of Nazareth 
to declare the perfection of his kingdom. 

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought 
up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue 
on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 

And there was delivered unto him the book of the 
prophet Isaias. And when he had opened the book, he 
found the place where it was written, 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent 
me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised. St. Luke 4: 16, 17 and 18. 

What Jesus announced then is true today. He 
later assured the disciples: 

Yerily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, 
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works 
than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. St. 
Luke 14: 12. 

All of the physical miseries of mankind, all of 
the pains that flesh is heir to are under the do¬ 
minion and control of every son of a man. 

Religion 

A little religion will help here amazingly. Not church- 
ology (though there is no objection to the church, of course) 
or sentimental Christianity, hut the simple belief that 


PREPARING THE MIND 


311 


there is within man a force that is indestructible, and that 
this same force is allied to that Power in the universe 
which makes for good. We are told that Tolstoi’s conver¬ 
sion was almost without theology. “His faith state was the 
sense come back that life was infinite in its moral signifi¬ 
cance.” And this minimum of religious belief is sufficient 
to keep the fear-afflicted person from pessimism, and oft- 
times from invalidism. 

Psychical research may not have proved the existence 
of a life beyond the grave (though some investigators 
claim that it has) but no psychologist can deny that man 
has religious instincts, and when he satisfies them he is 
happier and healthier than when he ignores such instincts, 
and starves the religious sides of his nature. One need 
not demand a copy of the Creator’s program for all eter¬ 
nity, mere mortal man could not comprehend it were one 
handed to him. But if we would save our health we must 
have faith in the plans of the Great Architect, and a per¬ 
fect trust that all is well. 

In All Ages 

The majority of deep thinkers of all ages have had such 
a faith, and really the arguments in favor of the “moral 
theory” are stronger than those which attempt to support 
the skeptical hypothesis. And choose one or the other we 
do, whether we are conscious of such a choice or not. For 
by not accepting the “moral theory” we take the other, 
and attempt to live our lives from this uninspiring, un¬ 
stable, materialistic standpoint. 

This mental attitude will give you the true perspective 
of life; you will begin to see your own little affairs in their 


312 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


right focus. Personal matters which formerly appeared 
formidable and gigantic will fret yon no more, for in the 
light of eternity, all trouble looks insignificant. Living in 
this widened world one finds himself saying of his per¬ 
sonal affairs, “they are not vital, things material do not 
matter.” 

—“Make of Yourself What You Will ” 

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain 
thee. (Psalms LY:22.) Thousands of unfortunate down¬ 
cast and grief-ridden souls could instantly find relief and 
deliverance from their life-long bondage of burden-bearing, 
by simply unloading their life-sorrows by casting their 
burdens upon the Lord. It should be remembered that the 
Everlasting Arms are underneath us, and that it is no 
greater task for the Almighty to sustain His children while 
they rest on top of their burdens than it is to support them 
while they groan underneath this weight of fear and sor¬ 
row. The Lord has to carry them anyway, so why not 
rejoice and be happy in the liberty which comes from the 
knowledge that our burdens are all underneath and not 
overhead ? 

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of 
power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 
1:7.) 

In both the Old and New Testaments, we are 
repeatedly admonished to cast “all your care 
upon Him; for He careth for you.” (I Peter 
V: 7.) 

Many patients can never be healed unless they 
have a faith anchored in God—the following illus- 


PREPARING THE MIND 


313 


tration from “The Psychoanalytic Method’’ by 
Pfister and Payne, is also a good study in Psycho¬ 
analysis :* 

A native of Holland, aged eighteen, complained to me 
that he suffered from severe pains, twitchings and often 
from pseudo-paralysis of the right arm and shoulder so 
that writing and piano playing were rendered well nigh 
impossible. The trouble was “nervous.” 

Upon being questioned, he said that he suffered from a 
severe emotional ill humor. The problem of suicide occu¬ 
pied his thoughts a great deal, especially since he had read 
Goethe’s “Werther,” Ibsen’s “Gespenster” and some simi¬ 
lar gloomy literary works. Still, he would yield to no 
suicidal impulses, which turned out later to be an untrue 
assertion. 

A year later, the youth succeeded in mastering his re¬ 
sistance to analysis and analyst. The exploration of the 
symptom proceeded with such ease, because of this cir¬ 
cumstance, that the more involved analysis of resistance, 
which is usually unavoidable in severe cases and always 
much more penetrating and in which, the analyst leaves 
to the patient almost entire direction of the conversation, 
could be omitted. 

The patient said that two years before, he read Goethe’s 
“Werther” without knowing the reason for his reading it, 
as he at once added spontaneously. A short time later, 
there broke out on one hand, severe pains, which, begin¬ 
ning in the upper arm, shot through the whole arm, and 
on the other hand, suicidal impulses, which, but for the 

*“The Psychoanalytic Method,” by Pfister and Payne. Dodd, 
Mead and Company, Publishers, New York. 



314 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


love of his parents, would probably have led to an act of 
desperation. 

Obviously, that dimly perceived reason for identifica¬ 
tion with the suffering Werther, was in an unhappy love 
affair. For about five years, the youth has had platonic 
relations with a girl of the same age, who attracted him 
and pleased him immensely but also angered him by moods 
and pretended exaggerated reserve. He constantly wav¬ 
ered between being joyous and sorrowful. The quar¬ 
rels, in which the little dame showed her love in the 
best form, were followed by sweet reconciliations. The 
Werther mood proceeded from a final separation, which 
according to the assertion of the patient, had come from 
the circumstance that the young lady upon occasion of a 
walk with her lover, had withdrawn in a rude and cow¬ 
ardly manner. Thus the suicidal impulse corresponded 
to the damning back of erotic emotions. 

Longing for death and refusal of suicide formed a com¬ 
promise in numerous dreams in which the youth, tired of 
life, escaped from life without guilt to himself, for in¬ 
stance, by falling from the window. The erotic back¬ 
ground is plainly discernible to the experienced observer 
from the typical symbol of falling. 

While the patient put the blame for the rupture upon 
the jilted friend, he was silent concerning the real motive 
and the burning self-reproach. Only the analysis elicited 
from him, the confession that some comrades had repre¬ 
sented to him that the girl possessed too little charm and 
too few talents and that he should have far higher aspi¬ 
rations, etc. The anxious attitude toward the one for¬ 
merly so hotly desired justified the brusque jilting so 


PREPARING THE MIND 


315 


little that he had to accuse himself of ungentlemanliness. 
Too proud to pick up again the severed threads, he in¬ 
wardly renounced love for girls in general and surrend¬ 
ered to worldweariness. Hysteria at once intervened as 
the avenger of the injured amour. 

The analysis of the pains in the arms proceeded rapidly. 
Keeping the symptom in view the young man recalled 
that his father had asked him during one of his attacks 
of pain, “in especially gentle tone” what ailed him. In 
this, the patient betrayed his father-complex which fre¬ 
quently caused the production of the symptom in order 
to extort sympathy. 

In the second place, the patient remembered while as¬ 
sociating to unpleasant innervations in the arm, a scene 
which he had experienced with his esteemed music teacher. 
The latter said to him, several years ago, on account of 
bad arm position in piano playing: “I wouldn’t have 
thought you could be so clumsy,” by which, the incipient 
artist thought himself wounded in his honor. 

Finally, the decisive trauma came to view. Seven 
years before the analysis, the patient had one day driven 
away several girls who sat on a wall, by throwing stones 
at them and then sitting on the wall himself. After 
awhile, he wished to bring still more stones but in so 
doing, fell so hard that he broke his collar bone. The 
reduction of the fracture was successfully accomplished 
only on the third day, accompanied by severe pain. 

This confession made intelligible to us, by the break 
with his girl friend caused hysterical phenomena in the 
arm. That familiar identification process, which may be 
included in the formula, “it is again as at that time,” 


316 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


came into action. As the eleven year old boy had con¬ 
sidered his pains in the arm a just punishment for his 
ungentlemanliness against the fair sex—the accident 
clearly had the meaning of an unintentional, even though 
subconsciously desired, self-punishment—so the sixteen 
year old youth saw himself branded as ungentlemanly and 
brutal before the bar of his conscience. The memory of 
the earlier ordeal did not come to clear consciousness. 
But the need for expiation, which gave the faithless more 
to do than the loss of the once beloved maiden, obtained 
satisfaction by creating the painful symptom which may 
therefore be recognized here as a wish fulfillment. To 
self-accusation, the memory of the piano-teacher also 
points; this would say: “You, too, were no virtuoso; how 
then could the lack of talents in your girl friend give you 
the right to cast her off? You are just as much in the 
wrong as that time on the wall when judgment overtook 
you.” Consequently, the hysteria represented the expi¬ 
ation-complex, just as the anxiety symptom did the block¬ 
ing up of the eroticism. 

A short time after the beginning of the suicidal im¬ 
pulse and the physical phenomena accompanying the 
same, which increased as we know, even to paralysis, there 
came the downfall of his faith in God. Formerly, he had 
thanked God fervently for his love for his girl friend. 
Since the gift proved to be delusive, the giver must also 
fall—a psychological process which, may be often ob¬ 
served where the erotic disturbance leads to renunciation 
of every love which has marriage in view. 

Again, after a short space of time, the youth fell out 
with his father, who for the most part had been little 


PREPARING THE MIND 


317 


concerned with his love affair. When the son, in his dis¬ 
tress, occasionally showed his distaste for life, the father 
became terribly excited, called suicide pathological and 
unreasonable, a sign of deficient faith in God and moral 
fickleness. As the only means of help, he recommended 
work and prayer. 

After about a year had passed, there came into the 
hands of the young atheist, who was completely domi¬ 
nated by his skepticism, some beautiful Madonna pictures. 
The impression was so overwhelming that he immediately 
began to pray to Mary. His good Reformed conscience, 
which had been developed by the spiritual influence of 
his religious teacher who excelled in critical acumen as 
well as in sympathy, he soothed by a false conclusion: 
since there was for him no longer a Christ and he be¬ 
lieved in no God, then he need make no reproach if he 
now lifted his heart to the Heavenly Virgin. Shortly 
before this sublimation, the sister of his former sweet¬ 
heart had greeted him most graciously, at which time, 
the similarity between the sisters struck him and the 
noble bearing of the girl inspired him with a secret long¬ 
ing, the desire for an ideal sister of the lost fiancee. 

In this adoration of the Madonna, the father-mother- 
and-bride complexes are all manifested. The longing 
for the ideal Virgin takes the place of the earlier inclina¬ 
tion toward the loved one. To love Mary, the beautiful, 
pure, spotless one, did not subject him to the danger of 
later disillusionment and harsh interference from the side 
of father and friends. Further, the God-Mother, with her 
boundless love for her misunderstood, suffering son, pro¬ 
vided a substitute for his own mother who allowed him to 


318 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


miss the tone of loving consolation. Finally, however, the 
Queen of Heaven represented divine supremacy without 
bearing the fatal name of father or otherwise recalling the 
austere, uncomprehending father. In the background, 
there naturally lurked the pleasure in avenging himself 
on the Creator by pious adoration of the Madonna and 
on the strict Protestant father, by the Catholic cult. 

Thus, Mary represents the beloved one, yet, being with¬ 
out physical and mental defects, she stood for the mother 
and further, being without human shortsightedness, she 
takes the place of the earthly and heavenly father and that 
without tormenting austerity. 

What a rich substitute, the divine Virgin afforded the 
shattered hysteric, is shown by the following event. When 
the pains became unbearable, the patient felt himself com¬ 
pelled to travel to Einsiedeln. He appears before the 
famous altar of Mary and will say his prayers, when, in 
an instant, the pain has gone. No wonder! The suf¬ 
ferer has found his beloved again and in the person of 
the graciously forgiving one. His self-accusations have 
therewith become groundless, he is no longer the un- 
chivalrous person who cruelly left his beloved in the lurch. 

That, in spite of this, the sublimation miscarried, is 
shown by the quick reappearance of physical and mental 
troubles. Painfully, the youth dragged himself through 
life, his achievements suffering great loss. 

More than a half year he remained under the sway of 
the Madonna. Then he fell in love with a young girl 
whom he informed at once, in characteristic fashion, of 
his suicidal thoughts. The sublimated libido, which the 
damming of the primary eroticism had raised to heavenly 


PREPARING THE MIND 


319 


heights, flowed out to the new object, while for Mary, 
there remained only modest admiration without any es¬ 
pecial ardor. 

On the other hand, the relation to the father continued 
strained. The son, longing to be understood, felt ungrati¬ 
fied. Hence, a sincere attitude toward God, the Heavenly 
Father, was also impossible. As usually happens in such 
cases, the sulking youth constructed all kinds of objects 
to God’s purposes and fortified himself behind the un¬ 
fathomableness of the idea of God, but was, nevertheless, 
himself not at all sure of the validity of his objections 
and suffered from internal desolation. Occasionally, also, 
before the analysis, he prayed to a higher power whom he 
would under no consideration call God. My task con¬ 
sisted less in refuting the threadbare theoretical argu¬ 
ments than in soothing and conciliatory conversation con¬ 
cerning the relation toward the well-meaning father, 
whose error was not greater than that of thousands of 
educators who lack all neurological understanding. 

Three weeks before our conversation, the hysteria had 
flared up again, though in diminished intensity. The 
analysis brought to light the circumstances that the love¬ 
sick youth, on one occasion, heard music poorly rendered, 
on another, saw poor handwriting. The reader probably 
surmises already that the new girl friend plays and writes 
badly, thus presenting the danger of a new estrangement. 
The discovery of this connection was not necessary to con¬ 
vince the patient of the correctness of our interpretation 
but it brought a surprising and significant confirmation 
of telling force. 


320 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


As there was still some time remaining, I informed my¬ 
self concerning some other traces of “nervousness.” It 
turned out that the youth became terribly frightened and 
trembled violently when he was called suddenly. The 
most important trauma proved to be a peevish call of the 
father who could not allow the boy to show himself on the 
street with his first girl friend. Today, the youth is 
afraid that his father may interfere to destroy his new 
affair. Since with him, as with so many neurotics, his 
superiors and teachers represent a substitute of the father, 
his fright is easily explained. 

The effect of the conversation, which, because of its 
superficial nature, scarcely deserves the name, analysis, 
was pronounced. The talented young man was strongly 
affected by the glance into the causal connection of mental 
processes which had caused him such frightful suffering. 
With his father, whom he had caused so much concern, he 
became reconciled by a free confession. The cultural 
deficiency of his girl friend, with whom an ideal relation 
existed, he made light of. After a week, he reported 
triumphantly to his former pastor, to whom he again 
brought unbounded confidence, that he had now found 
peace with God and felt himself again a (completely 
healthy, happy and fearless man. This fortunate condi¬ 
tion has continued to the present (three years) an indica¬ 
tion that even a somewhat ordinary symptom analysis, 
which is not to be altogether recommended for imitation, 
may work efficiently in the absence of much resistance. 


Irrespective of Religion or Philosophy 

It doesn’t matter, therefore, what may he onr 
religions or philosophical faith, the only thing to 
recognize—and every one believes this,—is that 
man is in every way superior to anything in the 
external world. This superiority over the exter¬ 
nal world, or outside conditions, comes from the 
power within you—the God spirit. And mark 
you, God’s spirit is just as potent for the Moham¬ 
medan as for the Confucian, for the Brahman as 
for the Zoroastrian, as potent for the Catholic as 
for the Protestant, for the Psychologist as for the 
Christian Scientist. 

Scripture has rightly said that God has given 
man dominion over all things—which means the 
spirit of God within man. That is the power which 
has dominion over all things, including our bodies, 
sickness, limitation, poverty, worry, wrong think¬ 
ing, conditions or environment. 

We are now going to use the God-given power 
or to exercise this authority vested in us. We 
have not been doing it in the past. We have 
thought that the God power is a miraculous 
power, striking here and there at the word or 
command of some favored prophet of the Lord. 


321 


322 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


But the God-given power over material condi¬ 
tions can he exercised by all men. It doesn’t strike 
the sky of man’s experience here and there in a 
miraculous way as the lightning darts through 
the clouds, but it is in men and can be exercised 
by all men for the “healing of the nations” and 
ourselves. 

Spiritual vs. Material 

The world is spiritual, not material. In the 
past we have tried to shape our lives in accord 
with external things. We have sought to develop 
peace and harmony in the outer world, forgetting 
or neglecting the inner harmony and the inner 
peace. We have looked on the outside instead of 
the inside. We either forgot or didn’t recognize 
the inner consciousness of life, the God power 
within, the well spring of health, success and 
happiness. We have thought all of those things 
were external, without. We forget, as Jesus has 
told us, that they are within. Paul tells us, “Ye 
are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwell- 
eth in you.” Where shall we seek God then and 
this God power if not within ourselves? We must 
recognize that the spirit that healeth and quick- 
eneth is not external but within us. We must 
recognize that the source of power and all healing 


PREPARING THE MIND 


323 


is within us because the God spirit is there within, 
and mark you, it does not matter what religions 
faith you hold, the spirit of God is within all peo¬ 
ples everywhere,—from one blood God made all 
nations of the earth, so the spirit of God is within 
all. You, therefore, irrespective of your philo¬ 
sophical or religious faith or belief, may look 
within the silent chambers of your soul and there 
commune with God, from whence cometh your 
health, your power and your happiness. 

Have Faith in God, in Man, in the World, 
in You 

Not only is there a great mental stimulus and 
much therapeutic value in having faith in man, in 
the world, in others, in yourself, in the healer and 
in God, but there are also beneficial physiological 
results from having faith. 

The following is from The Physiology of Faith 
and Fear,* by William S. Sadler, M.D., and is a 
remarkable testimony from the ranks of physi¬ 
cians : 

Faith promotes those physical conditions of the brain 
which lend themselves to clear and decisive mental action, 
while fear reacts on both brain and mind, to the disorder 
of one and the confusion of the other. Worry invariably 
beclouds the mental activities and renders the brain action 


*McClurg & Co., Publishers, Chicago, Ill. 



324 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


more or less sluggish. The mental activities of the modern 
civilized races have become increasingly intense. Today, 
men and women whose brains act promptly and decisively 
are at a premium. The care-free and the joyous are able 
to do a vast amount of taxing brain work, experiencing 
hut little mental fatigue; whereas the victims of grief and 
worry find themselves on the verge of brain-fag after en¬ 
gaging in the most ordinary mental activities. 

Faith induces sound and refreshing sleep. 

Faith is a conserver of nervous energy. 

Faith produces optimism. 

Faith will lead to hapiness—happiness is the secret of 
mental and nervous economy. 

Faith stimulates the mental powers and the bodily 
machinery so that one-half of the fuel and energy is 
needed to perform the same intellectual and physical tasks 
as when faith is absent. 

Faith energizes brain action. 

Faith begets mental courage and moral courage. 

Faith always finds a way to solve every problem of life. 

Faith inspires one to make his way out of any maze of 
difficulties. 

Faith inspires determination and the will to achieve. 

Faith makes Perseverance the watchword of man’s 
existence. 

Faith gives birth to the inspiration for greater things 
and reveals that nothing is impossible to the man who 
can will. 

Faith inspires the invalid to a belief in the restoration 
of his health and cheers on the sufferer until the physical 
battles are won and health is regained. 


PREPARING THE MIND 


325 


Faith generates and keeps the organs of the body in 
natural, orderly functioning. 

Faith strengthens the mind to the performance of un¬ 
usual feats and accomplishments. 

Faith makes it possible to perform intellectual work 
with a maximum of mental endurance and a minimum 
amount of brain fatigue. 

Faith inspires assurance that all things work together 
for good. 

Faith sees hopefulness and cheerfulness and has un¬ 
bounded confidence in the future. 

Faith rings of certainty and positiveness, sureness, 
unfailingness. 

Faith sees truthfulness. 

Faith inspires love, sentiment, kindheartedness, devo¬ 
tion, attachment, admiration, adoration, brotherliness, 
animation, good spirits, joyfulness, buoyancy, comfort, 
happiness, patience, calmness, forbearance, resignation, 
composure, enthusiasm, heartiness, normality, consistency, 
vitality, loyalty, justice, purity, truth, pluck, tenacity, 
health control, self-reliance, will power, sturdiness. 

Faith enables us to take a normal view of life and to 
have a natural outlook on the future. 

Faith, therefore, contributes to business success,—every 
man who has achieved success by his own effort is a man 
of faith, a man who can will—and even to the regaining 
of lost health. 

We were once summoned to the bedside of a patient 
whose heart action was almost suspended as the result of a 
frightful hemorrhage. The pulse was not perceptible at 
the wrist and the heart had all but given up the struggle. 


326 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


While the attendants made ready to inject salt solution 
and administer restoratives, we spoke to the patient in 
very positive and assuring terms, in answer to her question 
as to whether or not she was dying, and immediately— 
almost instantly—before a single material thing had been 
done for her, she began to rally; the heart began to beat 
with increased vigor, in less than one minute the pulse 
could be distinctly felt at the wrist, and in but a few 
minutes she had almost completely rallied from a 
threatened collapse. This was very evidently a case of 
heart-rally in response to certain stimuli and nervous 
energy, originated and directed by that potent and power¬ 
ful mental force, faith. It is easy to imagine what might 
have been the outcome of such a case had the priest been 
called, the candles lighted, and the last rites performed. 


MALICIOUS ANIMAL MAGNETISM 

The human aura as an encasement which pre¬ 
vents any outside negative thoughts from reach¬ 
ing their consciousness is often employed to ad¬ 
vantage. 

Some good people have the idea that other 
folks may be treating them negatively for sick¬ 
ness, discouragement, failure, loss, lack of 
friends, etc. This has been called malicious ani¬ 
mal magnetism and black magic. You may, how¬ 
ever, put this out of your thoughts. No one can 
hurt you but yourself. It is a scientific fact that 
one constructive thought has more power than 
ten thousand destructive thoughts. If you should 
think anyone is trying to work black magic on 
you or practice malicious animal magnetism, to 
undermine your health, block your progress, 
thwart your ambition or poison your love, know 
that the moment you take a positive, constructive 
thought to the contrary, you become master of 
your own fate. No one can get into your con¬ 
sciousness unless you allow it. No harm can come 
nigh your dwelling. The spirit of the infinite 
hovers over you, envelops you, encases you in an 
eternal spiritual wall of protection, so that no one 
under the sun can get into your consciousness. 


327 


328 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Constructive and Destructive Thoughts 

Carrying on our analogy, if one constructive 
thought is worth ten thousand destructive 
thoughts, all you have to do is, as mentioned 
above, to hold your positive thought, and it will 
blast away ten thousand destructive thoughts of 
others. So you see if anyone is maliciously in¬ 
clined to get into your consciousness in any way 
at all, to work you harm, by surprise, concentra¬ 
tion or visualization, know that your one positive 
thought can instantly put to rout your enemy’s 
many malicious, destructive thoughts. 

Pursuing our analogy one step further, you will 
readily see that, since one constructive thought, 
has more power than ten thousand destructive 
thoughts, if you have the belief and the courage 
and the faith to take the affirmations mentioned 
above, it will take ten thousand people, all com¬ 
bined, on your malicious destruction to make any 
dent in your consciousness at all. Your good com¬ 
mon sense tells you this is impossible. It would, 
in fact, he an impossibility to get ten thousand 
malicious, destructive minds all concentrated to 
harm anyone. Minds of that species would get 
to fighting among themselves, tearing out their 
own hair, gnashing their teeth one upon the other 


MALICIOUS MAGNETISM 


329 


until they would be toothless and their attention, 
therefore, would be diverted from you to their 
own unhappy plight.* 

Harmonious Vibrations 

People who seem to be bothered by outside in¬ 
fluences, either suspected thoughts and actions of 
others, neighborhood spite,** mharmony in the 
home or office, may build around them a spiritual 
wall impenetrable to all evil and inharmonious 
forces. This can be effected by cultivating the 
picture or the idea of a positive aura and always 
thinking of themselves as being encased in such a 
spiritual and mental suit of mail. 

Hugo Munsterberg in ‘ ‘ Psychotherapy ’ ’ gives 
an interesting illustration as to how suggestion 
helps one who thinks he is under the spell of 
malicious animal magnetism. 

The patient, a man of middle age, highly educated, for 
years had heard voices calling his name. A man with 
whom he had some personal quarrel, had, as he believed, 
hypnotized him from a distance and made him act queerly 
or do things which he really did not want to do, by tele¬ 
pathic influence. It is a development which is found quite 
frequently. Abnormal organic sensations or abnormal 
impulses and inhibitions which the patient cannot account 

*See Malicious Animal Magnetism, Practical Psychology and 
Sex Life. 

**See Applied Psychology and Scientific Living. 



330 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


for by his own motives becomes connected with some vagne 
ideas which are in the air, like wireless telegraphy or tele¬ 
pathy or hypnotism from a distance or electrical influence, 
or magnetism or telephoning, these then attached to an 
acquaintance who stands in a certain emotional relation. 
Here, too, some organic sensations evidently had been the 
starting point and the idea of the man with whom he 
quarreled had been secondarily attached. From this start¬ 
ing point more and more detail was reached. Every action 
was brought into connection with the powerful enemy who 
controlled more and more even the normal and reasonable 
doings of the patient. My first impression was decidedly 
that of a paranoic. Yet in some ways the case suggested 
another view. There had remained an insight into the 
unreality of the obsession. The patient did not really be¬ 
lieve the theory of the telepathic hypnotic influence. He 
felt it more as an idea which he could not get rid of and 
he did not know clearly himself whether he requested 
hypnotic treatment on my part for the purpose of counter¬ 
acting the hypnotic power of his enemy or for the purpose 
of liberating him from his exasperating fixed idea. More¬ 
over, I found that his voices had no hallucinatory charac¬ 
ter, but were merely sound images. I decided to make the 
experiment without great hope of success. 

I hypnotized the man deeply and suggested that no one 
can have power over his actions, that he is the responsible 
originator of everything that he does and that no one can 
influence him and that from that hour he would feel free 
from any telepathic intrigue. The effect of the very insis¬ 
tent and urgently repeated hypnotic suggestion during 
the first rather long treatment was such a surprisingly 


MALICIOUS MAGNETISM 


331 


good one that I decided to continue the psychotherapeutic 
cure. I hypnotized him daily for two weeks. The belief 
in the real wrong doings of an enemy disappeared entirely 
from the first. It was at once apprehended as a mere 
obsessing idea in his own mind and this idea itself began 
to be resolved. It lost its unity; the absurd impulses were 
still felt but they became less and less connected with the 
idea of another man, and as soon as they were rightly 
understood as doings of his own mind, the opposite motives 
gained in strength. A stronger and stronger appeal to his 
own power made these motives more and more influential. 
Slowly the association of the influence of the other man 
faded away entirely. I intentionally had not given any 
attention to the pseudo-voices, inasmuch as they had not 
taken any relation to the ideational delusion. I therefore 
did not include them in my suggestions, as I consider it 
wise to confine hypnotic suggestions always to as few points 
as possible. Yet these voices decreased too. At a certain 
point in the cure I substituted—to save my own time— 
an autosuggestive influence, or rather mixed one, inasmuch 
as I had him read ten times a day a letter of mine which 
contained appropriate suggestions. After about six weeks, 
all the disturbances for which he had sought my advice 
had disappeared. 

If You Believe in Malicious Animal 
Magnetism 

One of the greatest cults in the modern move¬ 
ment of mind healing in my judgment has done 
a great amount of harm by its propaganda of 
malicious animal magnetism. The leader of this 


332 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


great cult herself believed in it. I have a friend, 
a physician, who was her family doctor for three 
years, lived in the same house with her, to be near 
when she had her mental complex, a nervous spell 
of fear. She actually believed that other people 
were working harm against her. She had dis¬ 
covered that we can help ourselves and help 
friends by thought and so began to be fearful that 
the thoughts of others against one could have dele¬ 
terious and deadly effect. 

Of course that is wrong, unscientific, unless a 
person thinks so. If you think a person can harm 
you, the auto-suggestion of your thought will 
bring about harm—not the person. It will be your 
thinking that the person’s thinking wrong can do 
the harm. 

This one of whom I speak thought that there 
was someone in New York who was trying to get 
the leadership in place of the leader herself. She 
thought that her enemies were combining against 
her and they all acted to her—auto-suggestion— 
of course—like the power of demons working 
against her consciousness. 

But that is all wrong. No one can harm us and 
no one can get into our subconsciousness unless 
we let them. 


MALICIOUS MAGNETISM 


333 


But perhaps you have thought that others have 
been conspiring against you, plotting your down¬ 
fall, blocking your progress, and this has so 
preyed upon your mind as to have become a nega¬ 
tive obsession, which could produce the poisonous 
chemicalization to bring about your sickness. 

Dr. A. A. Lindsay has well said:* 

Sending and Receiving Stations 

The soul of every man is a transmitter and a receiver, 
and the character and degree of thought received by one 
from another is dependent only upon rapport; and the 
basis of rapport is sympathy. When sympathy is estab¬ 
lished between persons they become susceptible to impres¬ 
sions of the same vibratory rate. Fear of another, or fear 
that he can injure you by his thought power, creates a 
susceptibility to auto-suggestion. Enmity between people 
breaks up their rapport; therefore no one really has cause 
to fear the evil power of another’s thought. Harmony or 
agreement is the basis of rapport, the more thorough the 
sympathy and the larger the scope of the harmony, the 
better the rapport. 

Persons in rapport with each other often impart disease 
symptoms, taking on each other’s conditions so literally 
that operations have been performed on the body of one 
who had the simulation, the psychical or sympathetic man¬ 
ifestation, the remote person being the one organically 
affected. 

*New Psychology Complete, A. A. Lindsay, author and pub¬ 
lisher, New York. 



334 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


A man cannot bring disaster through telepathy into the 
life of his enemy, for the very reason that enmity prevents 
rapport. A second most potent reason is that the soul of 
man is exercising its functions for sustaining an equi¬ 
librium, moral and physical, and is not so open to destruc¬ 
tive agencies as to those that are uplifting. We have 
shown throughout the book that rapport itself is based 
upon love and sympathy. I have spoken frequently of the 
necessity for the receiver to be in attunement with the 
transmitter. A man is in no danger through thought 
transference, however powerful a concentrator his oppo¬ 
nent may be, but he is in great danger through his friends, 
who are in rapport with him, who send him the depressing 
and the unfavorable thought, who, because of their perfect 
rapport, plant the wrong expectancy in him. 

The proposition is this: That if a man or patient be¬ 
lieves that his enemies have the power over him, and that 
they are exercising it, then he comes to a fulfillment and 
realization of the condition that corresponds to what he 
believes they are endeavoring to do and are able to create. 

There is one way by which the twentieth century can 
pass back to reflect the sixteenth; the way to fall back to 
that standard is to let it become a general belief that a 
person can be evilly influenced by his enemies. It is not a 
surprise that it is a man’s own belief and the expectancy 
of his own soul, that either blesses or curses him, for that 
is the law of the soul: that which it believes, it will bring 
into expression. 


MALICIOUS MAGNETISM 


335 


Mental Malpractice 

There is no such thing as mental malpractice; 
that is, that anyone may hold an evil thought over 
you and do you harm. Negative concentration ex¬ 
pected or perpetrated to harm others never 
reaches its point, unless YOU BELIEVE SOME¬ 
ONE ELSE’S THOUGHTS CAN HARM YOU. 
Then they may. 

If you believe that anyone is holding ill 
thoughts over you, then by your own thinking and 
not by the negative thoughts of others, the dan¬ 
ger, trouble, misfortune or harm you expect that 
they are sending your way will come into your 
life not because of their thinking, but because of 
your own mental attitude—because you believe 
they have the power to hurt you. 

Bear in mind that one constructive thought has 
more power than ten thousand destructive 
thoughts. Therefore, you see how big a job any¬ 
one would have on their hands to try to work 
someone else harm by thinking or by concentrat¬ 
ing for their downfall. 

You see, it is a matter of your own belief that 
others can hurt you by concentration. If you still 
believe this, then take the affirmations which 
follow. 


336 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Every act, thought and word of all men and 
women anywhere and everywhere, is prompted by 
the divine love of God, and I am helped by such 
actions, thoughts and words. 

(To take at night upon retiring) 

My Subconscious Mind, I desire and command 
you to teach me to know that every act, thought 
and word of all men and women anywhere and 
everywhere, is prompted by the divine love of 
God, and I am helped by such actions, thoughts 
and words. 


EXPECTANCY 


We Get What We Think 

It is scientifically understood now* that a be¬ 
lief that a certain thing is abont to happen is quite 
sufficient to change the physical action in any part 
of the body. 

Therefore, one of the main things is for the 
patient to have a mind educated and attuned to 
the expectancy of healing. 

The reader will bear in mind that thought con¬ 
trols all voluntary and involuntary actions of the 
body. The subconscious mind controls the secre¬ 
tions of the glands of the body and all of the 
intricate internal functionings. For instance, if 
you should be held up on the street at night by a 
burglar, your heart may beat rapidly, perspira¬ 
tion start out from every pore and after the affair 
is over, weakness. ensue. Or you may slip on a 
banana peeling and go down ka-thump and when 
you get yourself together, find your heart palpi¬ 
tating, your face flushed and your body prickly 
with heat. 

*See Applied Psychology and Scientific Living— Vol. 1, Chap¬ 
ters under Chemistry of Emotion; Vol. V, The Psychology of 
Emotion, How to analyze yourself and others in this series. 

337 





338 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Mind, therefore, is the controller of all bodily 
functioning. 

Subconscious Mind Controls All 

Remember that the subconscious controls every 
organ, atom and cell of our being. 

Whatsoever the subconscious mind expects, it 
orders the cells to create. Therefore, after the 
mind is freed from all negation and worry, and 
faith has been established, the important attitude 
is expectancy. Whatever the subconscious mind 
expects, it orders done. 

A suggestion of any kind, good or bad, never 
affects a person to whom the suggestion is ad¬ 
dressed until the expectancy is aroused in the 
subconscious. 

This expectancy may be aroused and created by 
suggestions, from thousands of different sources, 
so that when aroused, a result consistent with the 
expectancy will be brought to pass. 

The next logical step in mental therapeutics is, 
following expectancy, to produce in the patient 
the greatest degree of passivity in mind and body 
as possible. 

This passivity is not a state of unconsciousness, 
neither is it hypnosis. It is, as indicated above, a 
state of relaxation, freedom from all disturbing 


EXPECTANCY 


339 


thoughts and tension. It is doubtless impossible 
for any one to have a perfectly blank mind. There¬ 
fore, in reaching this state of passivity where the 
mind is as tranquil as possible, if it must work, 
which in all probability it will, let it think about 
beautiful things, wholesome things, the highest 
state of success, health and happiness, harmony, 
love, joy, peace and comfort. 

Passivity may be divided into different states— 
the passive state I have mentioned above, where 
the patient is at rest, is a state of imperturbability 
toward everything around, but yet not bordering 
upon the semi-awake-sleep state. 

Next Step 

The next step in passivity is called hypnoidiza- 
tion where the patient is partially asleep and par¬ 
tially awake—the midway state, half-way between 
sleep and wakefulness. It is also referred to as 
the hypnoidal state and has different degrees or 
depths of passivity. 

The deepest state of passivity is known as hyp¬ 
nosis, but it is now believed, as mentioned else¬ 
where that better results for the majority of peo¬ 
ple can be obtained while the person is passive and 
conscious of the suggestions that are being given. 

The most favorable condition, then, which is 
certain to produce expectancy (in the majority of 


340 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


cases) is when the suggestion is received in a 
passive state with the mind open and conscious of 
the suggestions given. 

Not Always Necessary 

But, in order to achieve passivity, this is not 
always necessary for many people. Perhaps just 
a moment of rest may be enough to provide a 
demonstration for the subject while he is giving 
attention to his daily affairs and is critical of, or 
even averse to, mental healing. 

Very often in our classes people who have been 
opposed to psychology have applied for physical 
healing, even at home and been healed at the hour 
of our silence. This is easily explained. In the 
first place, no mind can apply itself to one thing 
all of the time. It’s not built that way. For in¬ 
stance, suppose a man has an article of great 
value and places his mind upon not losing it. 
Suppose the article is in a grip. He carries that 
grip himself and resolves not to let it get away 
from him and to think of this grip and its treasure 
first and always above everything else. For an 
hour or so, or even longer, his mind may go to 
that grip before anything in the world. Nothing 
can so distract his attention but his mind comes 


EXPECTANCE 


341 


back to the grip by his side. However, let this 
continue for a few hours, or a day, and the mind 
becomes wearied of this tension toward the treas¬ 
ure until the first thing he knows, he will get out 
of his seat and leave the room or the car, uncon¬ 
scious of the danger he has subjected his treasure 
to by temporarily abandoning it. 

So the skeptic might oppose mental healing or 
any method other than conventionally employed, 
yet be at different times off guard. He is bound 
to be off guard at times. There can be no other 
way. So when that person consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously happens to relax, instantly the vibrations 
from others—loved ones, friends, or a class, for 
healing reach the passive mind of the doubter and 
the healing takes place. 

Remember, you who are healers and you who 
desire to be healed, that the ideal condition for 
healing is an expectant mind in a state of passiv¬ 
ity, backed by faith. 

There is no doubt that a suggestion and antici¬ 
pation with co-operating circumstances or a great 
emotion, may control a person both mentally and 
physically, producing health or disease, and in 
crowds or communities may produce epidemic 
delusions. 


342 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


A state of expectancy is found in all walks of 
life. We usually get what we expect. The witch¬ 
craft delusion of New England, the leaping ague 
of Scotland, the dancing mania of the dark ages, 
the cases of supposed demoniacal possession in 
the nunneries of France, the Tarantism of South¬ 
ern Italy, the visionary revelations of ascetics in 
all branches of the Christian church, the mewing 
and biting epidemics in the nunneries of Germany 
and similar psychological outbreaks in other 
places may be explained by the hypothesis that 
the subjection of the mind to a dominant idea or 
suggestion results not only in the expectation but 
in the realization of the corresponding action. 

This is true not only in the production of de¬ 
lusions, but in the causation of health and disease 
as well. The cure of disease is effected in many 
cases by suggestion and the expectation of health 
—for we usually get what we expect. 

This mental attitude of expectancy is one of the 
most important moments leading up to healing 
by the mind—the “psychological moment” in its 
truest sense. 

The two illustrations given below are striking 
examples of what may take place under the heat 
of expectancy. While these are negative illus¬ 
trations, the reader will bear in mind that the 


EXPECTANCY 


343 


positive side of life always acts more quickly and 
potently; so that while the expectancy of some¬ 
thing wrong has a distinct effect in increasing 
the malignity of the result, the expectancy of 
something good and perfect has a beneficent 
effect much swifter and stronger in proportion. 

Mouse and Fits 

In a factory at Hebden Bridge in 1787 a girl popped 
a monse into the bosom of another girl. She got a fit. The 
next day three more girls had fits. On February 17th, the 
next day, six more. The works were stopped, as it was 
supposed to arise from a bag of cotton. On the 18th four¬ 
teen more had fits, one being a man; the fits lasting from 
fifteen minutes to twenty-four hours. Dr. St. Clare cured 
them (through the unconscious mind) with the electrical 
machine.* 

A young lady gave her father laudanum in mistake. 
When he died she was struck down, and lay ten months 
till death from general oedema set in. There was a post¬ 
mortem examination, and there was no cause of death but 
dropsy from mental causes.** 

“The expectation of a belief of something about 
to happen,’’ says Braid in “The Power of Mind 
over Body,” “is quite sufficient to change the 
physical action of any part.” 

*Hecker’s Epidemics of the Middle Ages, “Gentleman’s Maga 
zine,” 1787. 

**Sir H. Marsh, Dublin Quarterly Journal, vol. xliv, p. 9. 



344 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


From Dr. Clouston 

Professor Clouston in the British Medical Jour¬ 
nal says: 

The effects of a purgative pill have been rendered nil 
and it has produced sleep in the belief it was an opiate 
pill, though consisting of a strong dose of colocynth and 
calomel. On the other hand, an opium pill given for sleep 
has failed to produce it, but proved a strong purgative in 
the belief it was so intended. 

A complete fit of drunkenness can be produced by drink¬ 
ing vinegar as champagne. There is no limit to the power 
of illusions or to their variety hut your own power of 
invention. On the other hand, real sensations, as we have 
seen, may he entirely abolished. 

Suggestion as Purgative 

When one considers the aforementioned testi¬ 
monials from the medical profession, displaying 
the power of the mind in making a purgative pill 
act as an opiate for sleep and vice versa, or in 
producing a case of drunkenness through the ad¬ 
ministering of vinegar announced as champagne, 
it is very easy to understand what may happen 
when the mind is expecting a certain thing to 
take place. 

The fact that an opium pill may, instead of 
producing sleep, have the effect of a purgative, 
shows what may be effected in the mind of a 


EXPECTANCY 


345 


patient who is sincerely and scientifically expect¬ 
ing mental healing. 

If drunkenness can be produced by drinking 
vinegar merely because the subject thinks he is 
drinking champagne and expects to become drunk, 
what may we not have in the way of healing when 
the mind expects to be put in tune with the 
infinite 1 

Since it is obviously easier for the mind to pro¬ 
duce normal natural functioning than to effect 
irregularities and illusions, we may appreciate 
the vast significance of the medical principle in¬ 
volved, and at once recognize as a cardinal phase 
of mental therapeutics the need of the patient’s 
genuine expectancy of healing. 

Here is a good illustration from Braid: 

I passed a gold pencil-case from the wrist to the finger 
ends of a lady fifty-six years old without touching her, and 
she experienced a creeping, twitching sensation in that 
hand until it became quite unpleasant. On getting her to 
look in another direction and describe her feelings, the re¬ 
sults were the same when I made no movement at all, the 
whole being evidently caused by the power of the mind in 
causing a physical action of the body. With another lady I 
took a pair of scissors and passed them over her hand laid 
upon the table from the wrist downwards without contact. 
She immediately felt a creeping sensation followed by spas¬ 
modic twitching of the muscles so as to toss the hand 


346 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


from the table. I then desired her to place her other hand 
on the table, so that she might not observe what was being 
done, and in the same length of time similar phenomena 
were manifested, though I did nothing. I then told her 
her hand would become cold, and it was so; then intensely 
hot.* 

Hr. Carpenter says: 

That the confident expectation of a cure is the most 
potent means of bringing it about, doing that which no 
medical treatment can accomplish, may be affirmed as the 
generalized result of experience of the most varied kind 
extending through a long series of ages. 

Thus, the “expectant attention” of Carpenter was hailed 
as a triumph of science, and figured largely in its vocabu¬ 
lary for many years, although it was a mere substitute for 
the word “faith,” and accounted for the same phenomena. 
Imagination” is another word that has performed yeo- 
maffis service in the vocabulary of science. It has been 
invoked, “time whereof the memory of man runneth not 
to the contrary,” to account “scientifically” for cures ef¬ 
fected without the use of material remedies, and then 
dismissed with lofty contempt, as a subject unworthy of 
the attention of science. Thus the French Academy, in its 
report on Mesmerism, admitted that marvelous cures had 
been effected, but learnedly attributed the result to “imag¬ 
ination,” and thus dismissed the subject as unworthy the 
further attention of science. Obviously, the word was a 
mere substitute for that employed by the Master; and a 
very awkward substitute it was. 


*Braid, Power of Mind over Body, p. 15. 



EXPECTANCY 


347 


Observe here it is not the faith itself that cures, 
but faith, fear, etc., set into activity those powers 
and forces that the unconscious mind possesses 
over the body, both to cause disease and to 
cure it. 

Dr. William C. Prime relates the following case in his 
book, “Among the Northern Hills.” “The judge was sum¬ 
moned in a hurry to see an old lady who had managed her 
farm for forty years since her husband’s death. She had 
two sons, and a stepson, John, who was not an admirable 
person. After a long drive on a stormy night the judge 
found the old lady apparently just alive, and was told by 
the doctor in attendance to hurry, as his patient was very 
weak. The judge brought paper and ink with him. He 
found a stand and a candle, placed them at the head of 
the bed, and after saying a few words to the woman, told 
her he was ready to prepare the will if she would go on 
and tell him what she wanted him to do. He wrote the 
introductory phrase rapidly, and leaning toward her said, 
Now, go on, Mrs. Norton.’ 

“Her voice was quite faint, and she seemed to speak 
with an effort. She said: ‘First of all, I want to give the 
farm to my sons, Harry and James. Just put that down.’ 
‘But,’ said the judge, ‘you can’t do that, Mrs. Norton. The 
farm isn’t yours to give away.’ ‘The farm isn’t mine?’ 
she said in a voice decidedly stronger than before. ‘No, 
the farm isn’t yours. You have only a life interest in it.’ 
‘This farm that I’ve run for goin’ on forty-three year 
next spring isn’t mine to do with what I please with it? 
Why not, Judge, I’d like to know what you mean!’ ‘Why, 
Mr. Norton, your husband, gave you a life estate in all his 


348 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


property, and on your death the farm goes to his son, 
John, and your children get the village houses. I have 
explained that to you very often before/ And when I 
die, John Norton is to have this house and farm whether 
I will or not?’ ‘Just so. It will be his/ ‘Then I ain’t 
goin to die!’ said the old woman, in a clear and decidedly 
ringing and healthy voice. And so saying, she threw her 
feet over the front of the bed, sat up, gathered a blanket 
and coverlet about her, straightened her gaunt form, 
walked across the room and sat down in a great chair 
before the fire. 

“The doctor and the judge went home. That was fifteen 
years ago. The old lady is alive today. And she accom¬ 
plished her intent. She beat John after all. He died four 
years ago.” 


Direct the Mind Rightly 

Thus the patient’s mind should he constantly 
directed to the condition which is expected and 
whose realization is hoped for. 

It is well to remember what has already been 
recommended—that yon should never make any 
reference to the diseased condition during your 
suggestions, and never think about any conditions 
for yourself or friends except those which you 
wish to see brought to pass. 

So here is a rule of life which all should ob¬ 
serve. When you are talking about yourself, 
never say anything concerning your personality, 
surroundings, affairs, hopes and aspirations, fam¬ 
ily and friends, except that which you expect to 
be materialized and realized. 

Lead the mind away from the present condi¬ 
tion and place it upon the expected condition 
which you desire. This fixes the ideal of health, 
or whatever ideal you seek, in place of any un¬ 
desirable suggestion which the mind may uncon¬ 
sciously hold, and which it would continue to hold 
tenaciously if not otherwise directed. In short, 
the confident expectation of a cure is the best 
means of bringing about that cure. 


349 


350 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


A famous medical authority says: 

Men who cultivate a hopeful demeanour in the sick¬ 
room will more readily restore the patient by this helpful 
buoyant spirit than others who are constitutionally grave 
and desponding. These often unwittingly hinder the cure 
they are anxious to promote. . . . Indeed, so great is the 
mental factor in therapeutics, that it is not too much to 
say that inferior medical skill with a good and assuring 
manner is more likely to effect a cure than a superior skill 
with a diffident and depressing personality. 

Sympathy is indeed a powerful drug in the hands of a 
skilful administrator; for, after all, patients think much 
more of the doctor than his prescriptions; while he—poor 
man—generally thinks his hieroglyphics all, and himself 
nothing. 

It is thus that a family physician in the first instance 
has the greatest opportunities of mental treatment. His 
blue pill may be useful, but his tact in encountering false 
notions and instilling healthy ideas is the most powerful 
remedial agent he possesses. 

* * * * * 

When thinking constructive thoughts or enjoying con¬ 
structive emotions, the dynamic potency of every cell in 
the body is increased or modified for betterment; therefore, 
continual expectation of health and positive faith in re¬ 
cuperation after fatigue establishes a confidence which the 
subconscious accepts as a blue-print for building and re- 
building body tissue. — The Handbook of Life. 

Dr. Rush, one of the world’s famous physicians, never 
prescribed remedies of doubtful efficacy in the various 
stages of acute disease till he had worked up his patients 


EXPECTANCY 


351 


with a confidence bordering on certainty of their probable 
good effects. The success of this measure has much 
oftener answered than disappointed his expectation. 

If Dr. Rush did this, how important for the 
mental healer. 

As we consider the role of suggestion in the domain of 
sensation as applied to health, I quote some typical ex¬ 
amples from Paul Emile Levy’s l’Education Eationelle 
de la Volonte.* Levy was a pupil of Bernheim, and his 
book is transitional between the earlier Nancy School and 
the later. He alludes to an observation made upon him¬ 
self by Herbert Spencer: 

“If I merely think of a slate-pencil squeaking on a 
slate, my teeth are set on edge just as if I actually heard 
the sound.” 

Levy refers to the familiar experience that merely to 
think of itching anywhere suffices to arouse the sensation 
of itching. 

“Everyone knows,” he adds, “that if we are expecting 
a visitor, we are continually hearing the doorbell ring 
before it really does so.” 

The idea of a sensation of pleasure or pain, the idea 
of a feeling, tends to become this pleasure, this pain, or 
this feeling. 

As far as visceral sensations are concerned, Herbert 
Parkyn, in his excellent manual of autosuggestion,** 


*Paul Emile Levy, the Rational Education of the Will, English 
translation from the 9th French edition by Florence K. Bright, 
Ridier, London. 

**Herbert Parkyn, Auto-Suggestion, Fowler, London. 



352 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


records the following incident. It has its amusing side, 
so that it sticks in the memory. 

“A New York visitor in Chicago looks at his watch, 
which is set an hour ahead of Chicago time, and tells a 
Chicago friend that it is twelve o’clock. The Chicago 
friend, not considering the difference in time between 
Chicago and New York, tells the New Yorker that he is 
hungry and that he must go to lunch. Twelve o’clock 
is the Chicago man’s regular lunch hour, and the mere 
mention of twelve o’clock is sufficient to arouse his appe¬ 
tite.” (pp. 11-12.) 

Phenomena of this character occur in connection with 
all kinds of sensation. 

Parkyn reminds us that a man, after touching some 
article of clothing, may be told that it has been worn by 
someone suffering from skin disease. The subject there¬ 
upon has itching sensations all over the body, and fancies 
he has caught the disease. Again, medical students who 
study the symptoms of various diseases frequently exhibit 
these symptoms and imagine themselves to suffer from 
the diseases in question. Pacts of this order are quite 
familiar. The pamphlets, leaflets, and advertisements 
issued by the vendors of patent medicines vaunting speci¬ 
fics for all and sundry diseases whose symptoms are 
described with a wealth of detail, are responsible for an 
enormous amount of suffering. 

So our healing is effected the quicker when we are ex¬ 
pecting to be healed. 

As far as concerns physical pain in general, suggestion 
will sometimes intensify it, and will sometimes act as 


EXPECTANCY 


353 


an anaesthetic. Cone gives the following familiar in¬ 
stance : 

“Consider, for example, a little child. He has pinched 
his finger or scratched his hand. Instinctively he begins 
to cry, for the pain is more or less sharp. His mother 
runs to him, blows on his hand, rubs the sore place gently, 
tells him it is all over now and that it doesn’t hurt any 
more. Thereupon the child stops crying and begins to 
smile. Wherefore? The child hears his mother say, Tt 
doesn’t hurt now.’ His unconscious believes it. He 
imagines that there is no more pain, and actually he ceases 
to feel the pain. 

“But if the mother, greatly alarmed, exclaims: poor 
little darling, how you have hurt yourself! the child re¬ 
doubles his outcries. In this case, likewise, the child’s 
unconscious believes the mother’s words. The idea that 
the suffering is great, increases the suffering.” 

The reader may object that this example, and also that 
of the child which gets tired on hearing someone else 
complain of being tired, have nothing to do with the sub¬ 
ject under discussion, seeing that they are hetero-sugges¬ 
tions. But comparison with the adjoining instances will 
show that the parent’s words act only by way of the child’s 
imagination, and become suggestions only after they have 
been accepted by the child. 

Besides, in this case as well, we may say that we grown¬ 
ups are more childlike than we suppose. We shall learn 
that suggestion consciously utilized by the adult may be¬ 
come a potent anaesthetic. But so long as we remain 
ignorant of this, our trouble is that we are just as 
credulous as any child, with the difference that we are 


354 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


credulous in a bad sense while the child is credulous in 
a good sense. He believes that his mother’s blowing on 
the sore place eases the pain; and inasmuch as he believes 
it, it is true. For our part, we believe that we can get 
relief only by having recourse to a pharmaceutical arsenal; 
and as long as we believe this, as long as we remain 
ignorant of the power possessed by the brain over the 
rest of the organism, so long does our belief remain true, 
so long are we unable to do without the arsenal. But, 
per se, our negative superstition is a trifle more fallacious 
than the positive superstition of the child. 

It suffices for us to imagine ourselves poisoned by fungi; 
thereupon we are seized with violent colic. In this and 
in similar cases, we manifestly encounter two important 
factors of suggestion: emotion (fear, in the instance just 
given) and attention. The latter is sustained to the pitch 
of obsession, and is kept up by emotion. 

The Psychological Moment 

To build up the psychological moment is a feat 
of the greatest importance for the practitioner; 
since the susceptibility of the patient to help him¬ 
self and the practitioner in reaching this crucial 
stage is one of the most essential things in the 
realm of sympathetic mental healing. 

When the multitudes surged around Jesus to 
be healed, the principle of expectancy had been 
built up in their mind to the peak of perfection. 
When the apostles’ shadows fell beneficently 
upon the afflicted; when the sick, touching the 


EXPECTANCY 


355 


apostles’ handkerchiefs, were miraculously cured, 
it was all due to the creation of this psychological 
moment—the sufferers expected to he healed, and 
obtained what they expected. 

The same principle has been found true 
throughout the ages, as attested by the number¬ 
less legends of persons who have been healed by 
touching the hem of the king’s garments—primi¬ 
tive persons who believed that the king was of 
more than mortal composition and filled with the 
power of the Divine. Essentially similar if less 
glamorous is the case of the man who carries a 
horse chestnut in his pocket and succeeds in ward¬ 
ing off rheumatism. Expectancy—he does not ex¬ 
pect rheumatism, therefore he does not get it. 
The same thing is true when one carries a rabbit’s 
foot in one’s pocket or hangs a horse shoe over 
the door to keep away ill luck. The expectancy 
for good things takes the place of the counter- 
expectancy for evil. It would be equally good 
psychology to carry in one’s pocket the left hind 
leg of a disjointed rooster, or the quill of a fretted 
porcupine. 

There is no efficacy in these things nor is there 
any in the traditional rabbit’s foot or nail of a 
horseshoe. The power resides in the individual 
and is wholly the product of expectancy. 


356 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


To return to what we have already said, con¬ 
structive expectancy has a much quicker result 
than that expectancy which is negative or de¬ 
structive. Therefore the greatest expectancy a 
man can have is an expectancy of the power of 
God to heal; a faith that the Divine principle is 
Omnipotent. 

The following is by an author unknown to me, 
but is so well expressed that it merits repetition: 

Jesus refused to use any lower motive in His healing 
work than faith in His heavenly Father, and in Himself 
as the Father’s messenger. And from those who would 
be healed He demanded such a trust as the psychological 
medium in which He could work His deeds of mercy. He 
calls upon men to trust in God, because it is rational and 
right that they should do so. The blind and half super¬ 
stitious faith, as in the case of the woman who thought 
to be healed by touching the hem of His garment. He 
developed into spiritual confidence, not in His clothes, but 
in Himself. 

When a moral good is to be won, or a disease of char¬ 
acter is to be healed, no therapeutic agency can take the 
place of faith in God, as He has revealed himself in Christ. 
Such a faith stirs powerfully the forces of the inner life, 
arouses the deepest and purest feelings, removes the in¬ 
hibitions that arrest the will, harmonize the dissociated 
elements of the soul, and all these physical events react 
benefically upon the bodily organism. 


EXPECTANCY 


357 


Horse Chestnuts or Goose Quills 

Hence the chapter which follows is of the ut¬ 
most importance, especially to those who are re¬ 
ligiously inclined and who hold a liberal faith in 
God. 

Remember, however, that a person may have 
effective faith in anything, as we have already 
pointed out, be it faith in horse chestnuts, rabbits ’ 
feet, or goose quills. And if one is not religiously 
inclined or able to accept either the teachings of 
orthodoxy or the newer explanations of God and 
the Bible, let that one cultivate faith in the prac¬ 
titioner, faith in himself, or faith in nature. Once 
a faith of any depth or sincerity is cultivated, he 
its direction what it will, the healing will occur 
with equal effectiveness. 

"With all thy getting, get understanding,’’ 
says Solomon, but if Solomon were living today, 
I am sure he would add: "With all thy getting 
health, get expectancy—get faith in something.” 

The faith which people have in a "Divine 
Healer” is really the cause of the healing—not 
the healer himself. I am sure I am not overstat¬ 
ing when I say that thousands of people have 
been healed in my great campaigns because they 
have attended the public lectures with an ex¬ 
pectancy of being healed. Such people, of course, 


358 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


receive the vibrations of the great auditorium; 
and when I ask for a show of hands from those 
who have been healed during my speaking, it is 
not uncommon to have hundreds raise their hands. 

I did not come near them, I gave them no private 
or personal treatment, nor had they any prepara¬ 
tion beyond the fact that they had heard of the 
cure of others through presence at my meetings 
or perusal of my books. 

Having sought healing from every other source 
under the heavens, their last resort was “the 
healer that’s in town”—and so, with this expec¬ 
tancy and hope of remedy, they came into the 
auditorium. Their minds being built up to the 
psychological moment, they have the demonstra¬ 
tion when they expect it. The lame walk, the 
blind see, the deaf hear, the paralytic leap, the 
grief-stricken rally, and the discouraged hope— 
all because of expectancy! That which they ex¬ 
pected they got. 

What May Be Expected 

There will moreover be many people who from 
the thoughtful and expectant reading of the heal¬ 
ing books of this series will acquire the health 
they seek. The great fundamental laws under¬ 
lying health and success and happiness have been 
unfolded to them in the other volumes. As 


EXPECTANCY 


359 


they read, they begin to expect for themselves the 
abundance, prosperity, health, happiness, love, 
joy, and peace which they have observed in 
others. Inspired by former volumes, and read¬ 
ing with expectant mind they acquire the psy¬ 
chological attitude necessary for the attainment 
of the psychological moment; and by sheer force 
of faith and expectancy bring about the realiza¬ 
tion of what they want. 

If I were writing a series of religious books, 
attemptive to place a miraculous halo about my¬ 
self, I should not make such plain statements, or 
go so far as to say that anybody who has the 
desire to heal can be a healer. There is, however, 
no more of the miraculous in my methods than 
there should be in the methods of those who read 
my books. There is no more healing power in the 
author, save to the extent that exercise has sharp¬ 
ened what is the natural gift of us all, than there 
is in the reader. I appreciate, of course, that all 
these principles have nothing to do with the build¬ 
ing up of any new or unique religious institu¬ 
tion. I do not wish to do that. My desire is to 
make the laws of life so plain, so simple and so 
easy that everybody can be not only his own 
healer but a healer for others as well. 


360 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Believe 

Believe in yourself, believe in nature, believe 
in God, and “Tbe works that I do shall ye do 
also.” John 14-12. Back of it all is faith—faith 
in yourself, faith in man, faith in nature or faith 
in God. 

There is one phase of expectancy, however, 
which the patient and practitioner should be very 
careful to understand; namely, that too anxious 
a spirit may act as a strong counter-suggestion 
and delay the process of healing. We must not 
be over-anxious. If we are, we become too tense; 
“tied in a knot,” and straining to such an extent 
that it is impossible for the spirit of the infinite 
to have full play in our minds and body. In other 
words, we must he passive in our expectancy. 
When one is relaxed in mind and body the “in¬ 
flux of the spirit,” as Emerson says, can surge 
through one. 

May I liken the principle I have described to a 
garden hose? If such a hose is coiled and kinked, 
the water will usually either refuse to pass 
through it, or if sufficiently forcible in flow will 
break it outright. So too when the mind is 
strained, and the thinker over-anxious, the psy¬ 
chological processes become coiled and kinked, 
and the spirit of the Infinite cannot get through. 


EXPECTANCY 


361 


Remember, then, that all expectancy and all faith 
must be passive, not tense; and that the body 
must be relaxed as well as the mind. 

This is another reason why religious faith is so 
potent. If we actually grasp the conception of 
the law which Christ teaches when he says, “Take 
therefore no thought for the morrow; for the 
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. 
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” we 
have a passive faith in that kind of a God, amidst 
which the influx of the spirit may have full sway. 

Ignorant and Superstitious Often Healed 
Easier Than Cultured and Educated 

As one has said: 

Religiously speaking, the emotional experience uncon¬ 
sciously opens the soul to the Spirit, which enters into 
the whole being, just as the warm sunlight penetrates the 
very fibre of the plant. It is the Spirit that performs the 
mental part of the cure, not the personal thought or faith. 
The human part consists in becoming receptive in with¬ 
drawing the consciousness from self and physical sensa¬ 
tion, and becoming absorbed in the expected cure. The 
personal fears and wrong thoughts have stood in the way, 
and barred the door where the Spirit sought to enter. 
The new direction of mind changes all this, and makes 
way for the Spirit. Jt is a redirecting of the will; and 
in the wise use of the will, as we have seen, lies the greatest 
human power, while its misuse is the most potent cause of 
trouble. 



FAITH 

‘ ‘ Thy faith hath made thee whole.’ ’ 

* ‘Faith/ ’ says Terry Walter, M. D., “creates an 
expectancy of cure, and the moment of fixed atten¬ 
tion or fixed expectation establishes the psycho¬ 
logical moment when ‘ miracles’ transpire. ” 

The various forms of faith cure tend strongly to put 
the patient in a happy frame of mind—a condition 
favorable to health. However, there are all degrees of 
faith and wide differences in the way the system responds 
to the emotional state. One person is slightly affected 
by a strong emotion; another is strongly affected by a 
weak emotion. 

While the conscientious and religiously trained 
person, because of a higher standard of morality, 
may by his consciousness cause sickness, yet, on 
the other hand, the so-called moral powers are 
capable of exerting a tremendous influence in 
the control of the mind and body. 

When the moral mandates are reinforced with a posi¬ 
tive will, there is absolutely no limit to their far-reaching 
influence and their great power for good in the regulation 
of mental habits and physical practices. 

So God’s laws are always right. “My ways are 
equal,” said the Lord. Therefore, the religiously 
conscientious person may become well all the 
quicker. 


363 


364 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The Bible, which is the most deeply occult of all 
books, continually lays so much stress upon the efficiency 
of faith and the destructive influence of unbelief; and in 
like manner, all books on every branch, of spiritual sci¬ 
ence emphatically warn us against the admission of doubt 
or fear. 

The object of this series of Fundamentals of 
Practical Psychology is not only to explain scien¬ 
tific truths in an understandable and practical 
manner, but to corroborate, by means of citations 
from recognized authorities, evidence of my own 
which I have been years in collecting—evidence 
calculated to stimulate the belief of the reader, 
and arouse within him the conviction that he may 
be healed. With this in view, I herewith adduce 
a ‘ 4 host of witnesses’’ to prove the power of the 
mind to heal. 


Dynamic Power 

“Faith,” as Bishop Fallows says, “is a dynamic power 
within the soul itself. It springs from the innermost 
nature. It can be reinforced and strengthened from with¬ 
out, but must ever originate from within. In the healing 
of the mind or body, the energy exerted by the patient 
himself upon himself is of the utmost importance. It 
must begin with the belief that he can be helped. He may 
say, T have no faith/ when he seeks relief, but the very 
fact that he seeks it is the clear indication that he has 


FAITH 


365 


some faith. According to the measure of his faith will 
be the corresponding good.” 

Religious faith, as shown by Dr. Worcester of 
the Emmanuel Movement, is the primary sugges¬ 
tion for healing, to-wit: 

It is not long ago that religion was regarded as a pre¬ 
disposing cause of melancholia, hysteria, and insanity 
(Maudsley) but today we know that the type of character 
created by Christ, calm, loving, patient, unselfish, fearless, 
trusting, is the type best able to resist every form of 
nervous disease and moral evil (Schofield). Therefore it 
is that we offer this religion to those who seek our aid, 
seldom without success. In fact the willingness of even 
worldly-minded and apparently irreligious men and 
women to accept the character and teachings of Christ and 
to live by them has been one of the happiest experiences 
we have been permitted to enjoy. Again and again have I 
heard a man who had not thought seriously of religion for 
years exclaim, “I don’t know whether I am going to re¬ 
cover my health, and the curious thing is I don’t care now 
nearly as much as I did. But if I live I am going to be a 
better man than I have been in the past.” As a matter of 
fact we possess in our religion the greatest of all thera¬ 
peutic agents, if only we deal with it sincerely. 

The One Big Thing 

The biggest feature in all of Jesus’ work and 
that of his disciples the same as today, is that the 
patient must assume faith and have faith to be 
healed. 


366 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


He said to the blind man of Jericho, “Receive thy sight, 
thy faith hath made thee whole.” Lnke 18 :42. He had 
first asked Him what he should do for him to call out his 
faith. 

In the case of “the woman with an issue of blood twelve 
years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, 
and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.” He 
said, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” 

The palsied man borne of four was brought and let 
down through the roof. It is recorded that “when He saw 
their faith, He said to the sick of the palsy, ‘Thy sins be 
forgiven thee * * * take up thy bed and walk.’ ” Mk. 
2:5, 11. 

The Syro-Phoenician woman was told that her daugh¬ 
ter was healed because the mother had faith that she 
could be, and willed that she should be. Matt. 15 :25. 

As Thomas Parker Boyd Says: 

These are a few of many recorded cases in which faith 
was emphasized as essential to the cure. Not that faith in 
itself was the healing power, but it aroused and set in 
motion the spiritual forces which alone can heal. In some 
cases it was the faith of the patient, in others it was the 
faith of parents or friends, or the faith of the congrega¬ 
tion. In some places He could do no mighty works 
because the people had no faith. 

“Thy faith hath made thee whole” “According to your 
faith be it unto you”; “If thou canst believe, all things are 
possible to him that believeth”; “Said I not unto thee that 
if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of 
God?” These were neither idle or untruthful expressions. 


FAITH 


367 


On the other hand, it was of him that at his own home 
he failed to do many mighty works, “because of their unbe¬ 
lief.” The condition was absent there, because the people 
had known him from boyhood, and could not believe that 
the “carpenter’s son” could do any mighty works. 

Keynote of Christ’s Teachings 

No less an authority in the medical world than 
Wm. S. Sadler gives the following in “The Psy¬ 
chology of Faith and Fear”:* 

The teachings of the man Christ are everywhere per¬ 
meated by faith; faith is the keynote and the burden of 
His message of good cheer and happiness. It was the 
Master who said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard 
seed, * * * nothing shall be impossible unto you.” 

(Matt. XVII :20.) 

Christ, throughout his ministry of healing and restora¬ 
tion, seldom failed to acknowledge the saving power of 
the patient’s faith. After restoring the sight of the blind 
beggar, Jesus said unto him, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” 

(Luke XVIII :42.) 

The Apostle James, after admonishing the man who 
lacks wisdom to ask of God, adds: “Let him ask in faith, 
nothing wavering.” (Jas., 1:6.) It was this same writer 
who declared that “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” 

(Jas. V:15.) 

Faith invigorates and strengthens mind, soul and body; 
while fear depresses, diseases and ultimately destroys mind, 

•The Psychology of Faith and Fear, by William S. Sadler, 
M. D. McClurg & Co., Publishers. 



368 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


soul and body. This is the conclusion of psychology, 
physiology and theology. 

Faith, no doubt, is a material aid in resisting most 
infectious diseases. Fear has long been recognized as a 
very powerful factor in diseases of this sort, predisposing 
its victims to infection and to contraction of the various 
contagious and infectious maladies. Those who fear a 
disease most are most likely to catch it. Those who fear 
it least are less likely to contract it. Doctors are seldom 
smitten with the contagious diseases they so frequently 
mingle with, not only because of the protective measures 
they use, but also because of the fact that they seldom 
fear these diseases; and therefore, their vital resistance is 
not seriously decreased by fear. 

We recently saw a case where an unfortunate woman 
actually worried herself to death over the fear and dread of 
having cancer. Some physician had told her fourteen 
years previous that she had some symptoms of cancer, 
and ever since that time she had lived in constant terror 
of that disease. Post-mortem examination showed her to 
be absolutely free from cancer or any other organic disease, 
for that matter. 

The fear of disease is often so intense and acute as 
really to cause one to fall a victim either to genuine infec¬ 
tion or a deceptive and imaginative counterfeit, as is so 
frequently the case in cholera, hydrophobia and lockjaw. 

Doctors Agree 

Most doctors recognize that persons with strong 
constitutions, those with great recuperative pow- 


FAITH 


369 


ers, with a strong desire to he healthy, can speed¬ 
ily bring themselves back to health. 

One of the highest medical authorities, Dr. 
William Osier, summoned by King Edward VII 
from Johns Hopkins University to be regius pro¬ 
fessor of medicine at Oxford University, says in 
the Encyclopedia Americana: 

The psychical method has always played an important, 
though largely unrecognized, part in therapeutics. It is 
from faith, which buoys up the spirits, sets the blood 
flowing more freely and the nerves playing their part 
without disturbance, that a large part of all cure arises. 
Despondency, or lack of faith, will often sink the stoutest 
constitution almost to death’s door; faith will enable a 
spoonful of water or a bread pill to do almost miracles of 
healing when the best medicines have been given over in 
despair. The basis of the entire profession of medicine is 
faith in the doctor, his drugs and his methods. 

Bearing this in mind, we can better understand 
the following from The Lancet: 

A malady induced by mental reflex can only be cured 
by mental remedy. A full recognition of the value rightly 
attaching to the mental treatment of physical ailments 
will improve the usefulness of the physician and materially 
assist in the recovery of his patients. In disease, func¬ 
tional or organic, the therapeutic value of faith and hope, 
though not in our textbooks, is often enough to turn the 
scale in favor of recovery. 


370 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Dr. Carpenter says: “That the confident expectation of 
a cure is the most potent means of bringing it about, 
doing that ivhich no medical treatment can accomplish , 
may be affirmed as the generalized result of experiences of 
the most varied kind extending through a long series of 
ages.” 

Greater Than Medicine 

Dr. Austin Flint said to a medical class some 
years ago: ‘ ‘ Gentlemen, there is something in the 
practice of medicine far beyond the mere admin¬ 
istration of drugs. ’ * He told a great truth. Every 
successful physician knows the necessity of con¬ 
trolling the patient’s mind. He knows the value 
of faith, hope, expectancy and belief, and that they 
are among the most powerful therapeutic agents 
that can be used. The scriptural statement, 4 i Thy 
faith hath made thee whole,” is thoroughly scien¬ 
tific, and if we carefully observe we shall find 
many verifications of this truth. Hope, one of the 
greatest powers in the human mind, is at once 
elevating, uplifting and inspiring. Physically, 
hope can accelerate the heart action, relieve the 
nerve tension, and bring into one’s life great 
benefits. Fear, on the other hand, depresses the 
nerve action, contracts the blood vessels of the 
body and interferes with the circulation. It also 


FAITH 


371 


produces mental depression, and, very speedily, 
physical ailment. 

As some one well puts it: 

When man has learned thoroughly the difference between 
hope and fear, he has discovered one of the greatest prin¬ 
ciples of healing. When he has learned how to encourage 
and inspire hope, how to dispel despondency and drive 
away fear, he has discovered an effective method of reliev¬ 
ing the afflicted of many ailments. 

Take, for instance, a man who is in an excellent physical 
and mental condition and let him receive a report that his 
house has burned down, that some of his dear ones have 
lost their lives, and see how quickly it will produce a de¬ 
pressing effect and illness. If he were to receive news five 
or six hours after that it was a mistake, that the property 
was intact and the loved ones safe, his illness would leave 
him almost instantly. 

If he had consulted the doctors after receiving the news 
of disaster and had not informed them of it, they would 
have attributed his collapse and illness to different causes. 
Some would probably have said that this condition was 
caused by ptomaine poisoning; some would have attributed 
the cause to overwork; others would have blamed it on a 
severe cold, and probably others on different physical con¬ 
ditions. Various remedies would have been recommended. 
The real cause was a thought or thoughts which produced 
a shock, and as long as these were entertained the physical 
results would continue. Adverse suggestions had entered 
the subconscious mind and were depressing the vital func¬ 
tions; and as long as they controlled, depression of the 
circulatory and nervous systems would result. 


372 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


When the safety of home and loved ones became assured, 
the normal condition was re-established, the arteries re¬ 
laxed, the pallor was replaced by a glow of red in the face, 
the nerve action became normal, and the usual health was 
realized, with the happiness that followed therefrom. He 
was made ill by a thought of fear, he was cured by a 
thought and an assurance of safety. The thoughts we 
think, the exercise of faith in God and man, the inspira¬ 
tion of hope, all have a definite effect on every cell in the 
human body. 

Many of us are the same way. We concentrate 
on our debts until we get more debts. We are con¬ 
centrators for debts instead of for abundance. 
Every thought we entertain involves concentrat¬ 
ing. Hereafter we must dedicate our minds to 
positive and constructive thinking. 

There is just one big word that all must get into 
their vocabulary. Now, when I mention this word 
you people who are outside of the church may at 
first not care to accept it or attach any value to it, 
but you will in a half minute. That big one word, 
friends, which you must have in your conscious¬ 
ness is FAITH. I don’t care how you express it 
but I’ll say this: that even a child can understand 
that this whole civilization of ours is built upon 
FAITH. Every time you take the other man’s 
check it is faith that he has enough money to cover 


FAITH 


373 


the check. Every business deal is transacted on 
faith. It can be said, in fact, that unless we have 
faith in one another, we do not live in a state of 
civilization. Suppose you carry that a step fur¬ 
ther, and have FAITH in yourself. 

FAITH in yourself! FAITH in your fellow 
man and FAITH in God! Now if you can get this 
word FAITH into your consciousness or get the 
spirit of FAITH into your consciousness, you in¬ 
stantly become a strong concentrator and if you 
think you cannot do so then take the affirmation, 
“I have faith in myself, I have faith in God,” 
seven times seven and seventy times seven until 
you get the idea these words suggest into your 
consciousness so firmly that you really and truly 
believe it. 

Now we are going to practice on that a little. 
You are going to run that through your mind as 
you go to sleep and during the Silence you are 
going to take, “I have faith in myself, I have 
faith in God,” repeat it seven times seven and 
seventy times seven until you become a strong 
concentrator. After you have that as a founda¬ 
tion go ahead. You can do the rest of the things 
yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you are a 


374 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


churchman or outside of the church, you can estab¬ 
lish that kind of belief in yourself. 

Faith is the foundation of all of the workable 
laws of life. We are calling them psychological 
laws. Every man who builds up a business does 
so by virtue of faith in himself, faith in his goods 
and faith in his business methods. So long as we 
get it we do not care how we get it. Along comes 
a man who tells his audience to have faith in the 
unreality of things. Many are healed. Their 
minds become obsessed with that particular idea. 
Even though we may think that man is wrong 
when he declares, “I have the only thing that 
there is. I heal by conversion,” you may get faith 
and be healed that way. But I don’t care what 
method you use so long as you get results. There 
is no one who has the right way. I don’t care who 
he is or where he comes from, he may have some 
of the right way. But the fellow who says, “I 
have the only way there is,” has something radi¬ 
cally wrong with him. He may not know it and 
the world may not be able to put its finger on it, 
but there is something seriously wrong with the 
fellow who says: “I have access to the only foun¬ 
tain of truth.” 


FAITH 


375 


I once listened to a man who declared Darwin 
was wrong and Huxley was wrong. He ran down 
the whole line and then said, “My way is truth.’’ 
What rubbish! There can be no one mind that 
gets everything right all the time. All angles of 
healing have truth. Get FAITH somehow, some¬ 
where, and you are a thousand times better off. 
I believe that we are doing as much as anything 
else at the present time in arousing the people to 
the approach of a new and better day. When that 
time comes, my friends, we are going to have so 
much faith in everything and everybody that the 
world will he aflame with Faith. 


Another Great Authority 

Oliver Henkel, in “Mental Medicine,”* corrob¬ 
orates the author’s viewpoint when he says: 

There is a great deal in that phrase that Tolstoi uses 
in one of his books, “Faith is the force of life. For, in 
fact, faith is more than spiritual imagination or spiritual 
comprehension. It is a vital energy. It is not merely the 
power that relates the finite to the infinite, that bridges 
the gulf between the seen and the unseen, but it is a 
stimulus to all the latent faculties of life. It is as large and 
as real a factor in our lives as reason, or will, or the 
affections. It is a basal principle of life, and we ought to 
recognize it as such. 

We recognize that in material affairs, as in spiritual, 
the man with faith is the man who brings about results. 
“Faith,” as one says, “is behind the great achievements 
of our modern life. Faith is the keystone of success. 
Without faith we do the work of life with lagging hearts. 
With it our powers are at their best. Chronic doubt kills 
effort and cripples its powers. But faith— not credulity, 
not rashness—but honest, constructive faith, which rea¬ 
lizes by action that ‘assurance of things hoped for—such 
a force will carry us over mountains of difficulty and leave 
us fresh for the next climb’.” 

Faith is thus a daily principle in business and in social 
life. We must have faith in our fellows to some large 

•“Mental Medicine,” by Oliver Hunkel. Thomas W. Crowell & 
Co., New York, Publishers. 


376 



FAITH 


377 


extent, or business stops, and social life becomes a mockery. 
Faith is also a principle which is used in science. We 
think of science as based on knowledge. So it is. It goes 
usually only as far as the five senses take it, and yet it 
believes further than it sees. It has never actually seen 
the essence of life, only its manifestations in electricity or 
the other energies. But it has faith in these, so that the 
whole universe becomes intelligent and understandable. 

Now extend this same principle of Faith into the thera¬ 
peutic field. As a matter of fact, it is being more and 
more recognized that in all mental and spiritual methods 
of dealing with disease, faith is a powerful factor. “After 
all,” as Dr. Osier says, “faith is a great leveler of life. 
Without it, man can do nothing; with it, even with a 
fragment, as a grain of mustard seed, all things are pos¬ 
sible to him. Faith in us, faith in our drugs and methods, 
is the great stock in trade of the profession . . . It is 

the aurum potabile, the touchstone of success in medicine. 
As Oalen says, ‘Confidence and hope do more good than 
physic/ He cures most in whom most are confident.” 

But in this special work it may be asked: What kind 
of faith is needed for the therapeutic work ? And we may 
answer that it is not a superstitious faith that is needed, 
nothing blind, arbitrary or unreasoning; nor a theological 
faith or creed. Indeed, people of widely different creeds, 
and of no creed, are equally helped in this movement. 
Nor is it a stultifying faith, believing without evidence 
and affirming belief of what, in your inmost soul, you are 
not persuaded. Instead it is a simple, reasonable, funda¬ 
mental faith—an attitude of life and soul which means 


378 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


reverence, willingness, obedience. That is enough to begin 
with, and it will increase. It means such a faith as this: 

1. Faith in God's love and His loving purpose towards 
us. For God is love, life, health. H3e wills health for us. 
He helps us to health, as far as we allow Him. He is 
opposed to pain and disease and abnormality as he is 
opposed to vice and sin. 

2. Faith in the healing power of Nature (which is 
another name for God). Nature is always seeking to heal 
us. Take away the barriers; give Nature a chance and she 
will heal. 

3. Faith in ourselves when our wills and energies are 
stimulated, strengthened, and energized by God’s grace. 
We must stir up the gift that is in us. The power is often 
latent. It needs the stimulus of new exertion; it needs 
re-education. 

Dr. Laycock, an eminent English physician, 
claims that the most eminent and successful physi¬ 
cians have all been psychologists, for the knowl¬ 
edge of a practical science of mind is fundamen¬ 
tally necessary to the practice of medicine. 

A retired physician says that for the last ten years of 
his practice he administered no “medicine” except bread 
pills and colored water. He says the results were just as 
satisfactory as when he used drugs. What brought about 
his “cures”? Why, FAITH—faith in the drugs these 
patients thought they were getting. 

So says C. Franklin Leavitt, himself an M. D. 

F. W. Sears, in “How to Give Treatments/’ 
expresses the same idea thus: 


FAITH 


379 


All Is Natural 

Paracelsus pointed out that, “whether the object of your 
faith is real or false, you will nevertheless obtain the same 
effects”; thus showing that the virtue is not derived objec¬ 
tively, but subjectively, as we think, from the uncon¬ 
scious mind. 

There is no miracle in healing'by faith; whereas it 
would be a miracle if, the organism being as it is, and the 
laws of life such as they are, faith-healing did not, under 
favourable conditions, occur. Here conscious mind alone 
is recognized; the unconscious mind being “a series of 
centres” endowed with psychical powers! 

We see this truth manifested in the history of those who 
have gone to some shrine like St. Ann’s in Canada. They 
go there crippled from all sorts of diseases, the result of 
living in and relating with the slower vibrating currents, 
where disease, inharmony and lack of all kinds are to be 
found. They come away whole, strong and well, because 
through the inspiration which their visit to the shrine and 
their belief in its miraculous powers brought them, they 
began to live in an entirely new and much more rapid 
vibration, one in which they found harmony or health. It 
is said there are thousands of crutches stored there which 
were left by those patients who have been cured. 

There is nothing miraculous about these cures. All 
such cases are the natural, normal effect of the causes set 
in motion and are occasioned by the harmony in the vibra¬ 
tions of the crippled part of the body being restored 
through the inspiration given the patients by their perfect 
faith that a visit to such shrine would bring about their 


380 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


complete restroation. The energy generated by this belief 
and inspiration caused a rearrangement of the atoms in 
that part of their bodies which were crippled, they were 
restored to their normal vibratory rate, and health re¬ 
sulted. 

The thought current with which we relate determines 
the material things which we attract to us. When we 
walk down Broadway we relate with the people, things and 
conditions which are especially peculiar to Broadway. 
That is also true of Fifth, Third, Ninth Avenues and 
every other street in New York. The same is true with 
our thought world. 

On the physical plane we find the negative, diseased 
and poverty stricken people naturally gravitate to certain 
sections of the city, while the rich, strong and powerful 
are found in other sections. The thought currents of the 
invisible world are reflected in these physical and objective 
manifestations. 

Recently the New York papers contained an article 
announcing the “miraculous cure from paralysis” of a city 
employee, Patrick Jones by name. The account stated that 
he had been paralyzed for over three months; had lost the 
use of his limbs and had to be wheeled about in a chair. 
His physician gave him no encouragement of a possible 
cure and his family and friends believed he would never 
get well. 

“His own faith,” the article said, “remained firm 
throughout his months of suffering and helplessness,” and 
recently, the account says, “he insisted on attending mass. 
He could not kneel and so he sat with bowed head at the 
elevation of the Host.” “The priest slowly lifted the holy 


FAITH 


381 


water of the body of Christ, and in that instant the wife 
of the paralytic felt him lean forward and sink gently to 
his knees. At the conclusion of the prayer he raised him¬ 
self to the seat and at the end of the services walked home 
without assistance.” 

What caused this sudden and complete change of con¬ 
dition? The inspiration which this man received, when he 
saw the Host lifted up (a most sacred thing to him) set 
up a new vibration in the atoms of his body and restored 
them to their normal and harmonious relationship. This 
was the natural result of a natural law with which the 
world is daily becoming more familiar. 

Another Phase 

Thomson J. Hudson, in “The Law of Mental 
Medicine, ’’ throws another light upon the meaning 
of faith, as understood by Jesus. It would he well 
for the careful reader to ponder upon this ex¬ 
planation of Hudson.* 

It may be here remarked that the English word “faith” 
very inadequately describes the energy or force in ques¬ 
tion, as Jesus apparently understood it. That is to say, 
no definition of the word is found in any dictionary that 
conveys the slightest notion of that dynamic energy which 
enabled the leper to throw off his disease instantaneously, 
or the lame man to take up his bed and walk. Every 
dictionary definition embraces the implication of some 
form or degree of belief as its determinative feature. But 

*“Law of Mental Medicine,” by Hudson, McClurg & Co., Chi¬ 
cago, Publishers. 



382 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the faith which Jesus proclaimed as the one prepotent 
agency in the healing of disease—the faith which sustained 
Peter in his walk upon the water until he momentarily 
lost it, the dynamic potentialities of which could only be 
adequately prefigured as being equal to the removal of 
mountains—such a faith is necessarily far more than the 
word “belief” or “confidence” would imply. It includes 
both, as modern experiments amply demonstrate; but it 
must also include all the spiritual energies of the human 
soul. To say the least, it must be the mental condition 
precedent to enable the soul to exercise any of its powers. 

Be that as it may, it is sufficient for present purposes 
to know that faith is the essential mental condition prere¬ 
quisite to success in healing the sick by any process of 
mental healing; and when Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed 
that pregnant fact, he anticipated the inductions of modern 
science by nineteen hundred years. How he came into 
possession of such an exact knowledge of the fundamental 
law of mental healing, is not a pertinent subject of discus¬ 
sion in this connection. It is sufficient to note the fact 
that he possessed that knowledge. Science is concerned 
only with the question of verification. That it has been 
amply verified by scientific experimentation within the 
last quarter of a century is a matter of common knowledge 
among students of experimental psychology. The nature 
of the experiments and their evidential value will be 
shown hereinafter. In the meantime we must assume pro¬ 
visionally that a certain definite attitude of mind on the 
part of the patient is essential to success in mental heal¬ 
ing, and that that attitude of mind is best defined by the 
word “faith.” It is also in evidence that, when faith is 


FAITH 


383 


perfect, methods of healing are of comparatively little im¬ 
portance. That is to say, methods may vary within very 
wide limits without affecting the result, provided each 
patient is inspired by the requisite confidence in the par¬ 
ticular method employed in his case. Hence the frequent 
successes attending each of the innumerable methods of 
mental healing that have prevailed in all the ages of man¬ 
kind. 

That, for instance, which is of primary importance, 
namely, the induction of the essential condition of faith 
in the mind of the patient, will be found to be surprisingly 
easy of accomplishment. 

“He will do exceedingly abundantly more than 
you can ask or think ACCORDING TO THE 
POWER THAT WORKETH IN YOU.” 

It is well to have faith, but at the outset faith is not 
absolutely necessary. It is time enough for the patient 
to have faith in the treatment when he can perceive the 
benefit he is receiving. Understanding the mental and 
physical changes which follow a certain thought, the sug¬ 
gestion^ is able to bring about those mental or physical 
changes by using direct suggestion in such a way that his 
patient is hound to think the thoughts which will produce 
the results. A man may not have faith in the statement 
that the thought of lemon juice will stimulate the flow of 
saliva, but if he will imagine for a moment that he is ’ 
squeezing the juice of a lemon into his mouth the saliva 
will immediately flow more freely than usual, regardless 
of his faith. Similarly, many, if not all of the organs of 
the body, can be affected by impulses following certain 
lines of thought, and these impulses will follow the thought 


384 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and stimulate the organs regardless of faith. It is simply 
necessary to get a patient to think the proper thoughts, 
and it is in thought directing that the work of the sug- 
gestionist lies. 

If you depend upon the great Power within, it 
will “make good.” If the demonstration does not 
take place, you may he assured that a counter 
auto-suggestion has somehow got into your con¬ 
sciousness, or that you are the recipient of wrong 
vibrations, at home, in the community, in busi¬ 
ness, or generally that you are, in short, being 
constrained to play the role of a negative receiv¬ 
ing station.* 

When one believes that he may he healed, half 
the battle is over and immediately he begins to 
mend. 

In the new way of expressing our At-One-Ment 
with God, wherein we claim, “Now are we sons of 
God,” we make a most pronounced suggestion to 
the subconscious mind, and when the subcon¬ 
scious believes this, the results are frequently 
amazing. The more faith we have in the Divinity 
within ourselves, the stronger, of course, is the 
suggestion. 

*See Applied Psychology and Scientific Living Chapters on 
Vibration and Chemistry of Emotion. 



HOW HEALER WORKS 


385 


Unconscious Faith 

Unconscious faith may be developed by thought trans¬ 
ference from the healer to the patient. The patient sub¬ 
mits because of his desire to be helped and healed, and as 
the healer leads in silent or audible prayer the patient 
unconsciously follows and faith is produced and exercised 
in the audible or silent suggestions given and visualiza¬ 
tions performed and corresponding results follow. 

At first the healer has faith for two and holding that 
faith strongly influences the patient and changes his 
mental attitude and establishes an agreement between the 
healer and the patient (the law of agreement).—"Hand¬ 
book on Healing Others,” by Charles F. Winbigler. 


More of ’Em 

The late Hugo Munsterberg in “Psycho- 
Therapy” gives another slant to the way faith 
may be operated for one’s healing. 

But where there is real confidence, based perhaps on 
the fame of the doctor and on the reports of his powerful 
achievements, there the conditions for effective suggestions 
are greatly strengthened. Still better is it if this con¬ 
fidence in the man is combined with a sincere hope for 
recovery. To lie down on a lounge on which hundreds 
have been cured fascinates the imagination sufficiently to 
give to every suggestion a much better chance to overcome 
the counter-idea. The expectation that something won¬ 
derful will happen can even produce an almost hypnoid 
state. 

My first experience with spiritual healing was along this 
line—as the result of abnormal thinking and its con¬ 
sequent abnormal living, I had developed a chronic de¬ 
rangement which under the best physical methods grew 
rapidly worse. My trouble was not one of those nervous 
disturbances which the doctors admit may be cured by 
psychological methods, but was a serious organic trouble, 
always treated by the most heroic use of drugs and sur¬ 
gery. The trouble in my case was that I didn’t respond 
to treatment, but progressed from one serious complication 
to another. Within two months I had reached a condition 
where any doctor would have been glad to have rid him¬ 
self of me, for the simple reason that I seemed to be 
making a flying trip toward the undertaker’s. 


386 


FAITH 


387 


I woke to this fact one day, and clutched desperately at 
the only straw floating in my tempestuous seas—a sort of 
prayer or statement of truth, whose logic I only dimly 
comprehend. This statement was, “I thank Thee, 0 my 
Father, that I am perfect, even as Thou art perfect.” I 
said “goodbye” to the doctor, dumped the medicine I had 
been taking into the garbage, and, as far as possible, went 
back to a normal way of living. When symptoms asserted 
themselves so strongly that I couldn’t ignore them, I 
closed my eyes and repeated my formula over and over 
again—and in the end, dogmatic and unreasoning faith 
won the day. Without physical treatment, the progress of 
disease was stayed and I began to mend. 

There are various ways, of course, to get faith. 
Paul Ellsworth, in “Direct Healing,” gives 
another view.* 

Nevertheless, faith is as essential to success in healing 
by scientific methods as by any other. But there are three 
advantages in this regard which are incident to scientific 
methods. The first is that the requisite faith can be 
acquired by study and reasoning; the second is that the 
faith is perfect, for the reason that it is acquired through 
knowledge and confirmed by reason; and the third is that 
the faith thus acquired and sanctioned becomes at once a 
permanent possession, because there can arise no adverse 
auto-suggestions from the objective mind to weaken its 
potency. 

*“Direct Healing,” Paul Ellsworth. Elizabeth Towne Co., Inc., 
Publishers. 



388 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


‘ ‘ So long as we weakly pray, ‘ if it be Thy will, ’ 
we shall not make much progress. Who would 
think of praying, ‘ Save my soul, if it he Thy willF 
Rather, one should come with confidence to the 
throne from which flows the healing stream and 
say at all times, 4 Thy will be done in me.’ ” 

“'To believe that God afflicts us with sickness is 
to dishonor Him and doubt His love and mercy. 
Health, and not sickness, is normal and will fol¬ 
low when knowledge of all the physical and men¬ 
tal laws of health leads to obedience to them. ’ ’ 
“All these worketh the one and the same Spirit, 
dividing to each one severally even as he will . 9 9 

Fill the subconscious mind with this emotion of faith. 
Cast out all doubt. Eliminate thoughts that sickness and 
suffering are imposed upon man by God as a punishment. 
Conform to the natural laws of hygiene, and think only 
those thoughts which put you in harmony with the Divine. 
This is the strongest of all helpful emotions. 

The powers of the mind stimulated to activity through 
the Christian faith should produce works far transcend¬ 
ing anything that could be accomplished from any other 
stimulus. The reason for this is that he has fixed his faith 
upon the All Powerful. He need not question the ability 
of Him to whom he sends for aid. 

It will not be a belief in special providences, but a 
faith or belief in the laws of being and in their own 
privileges. 


FAITH 


389 


“THOUGH HE SLAY ME, YET WILL I 
TRUST IN HIM! John Fiske says . . . 

‘ The man who has acquired such faith is the true 
freeman of the universe, clad in the stoutest coat 
of mail against disaster and sophistry; the man 
who can never be enslaved and whose guerdon is 
the serene happiness that can never be taken 
away.’ Under all conditions affirm this faith and 
trust.’’ 

And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath 
made thee whole. And immediately he reecived his sight. 
(Mark X:52.) And He could there do no mighty work, 
save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and 
healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. 
(Mark VI :5, 6.) 

When ye pray believe that ye have received and ye 
shall have. 


Where’s Your Faith? 

Is your faith in disease germs or in health f Is 
your faith in failure or in success? Is your faith 
in poverty or in abundance? Is your faith in hap¬ 
piness or in discontent? For, indeed, where a 
man’s heart (faith) is, there will his treasure be 
also. If our faith is in disease, we shall get it. If 
it’s in poverty, we shan’t have to wait long to 
shake hands with it. If it’s in failure, we can’t 
run away from it—Failure will dog us and is 


390 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


bound to run us down. If your faith is in discon¬ 
tent, you will have an upset mind without any 
help. Whatever your faith is in, you’ll get it. 

But if a man’s faith is in health, health he will 
have. If a man’s faith is in abundance, abundance 
is his. If a man’s faith is in success, you can’t 
keep it from him. If a man’s faith is in happiness, 
happiness will be wafted to him on the four winds 
of heaven. 

Where’s Your Faith? 

The subconscious is the power within the indi¬ 
vidual which heals. Suggestion is the key to that 
power’s expression and expectancy is “the de¬ 
gree to which the soul must be affected in order 
'to be healed.” Consequently, the patient must 
have an expectancy for healing. This expectancy 
may be stimulated by many and divers things: 
Kissing King’s Garments, Charms, Miracle 
Working Springs, Ashes of the Saints, Rabbit’s 
Foot in the Pocket, Horse Shoe Over the Door, 
Laying On of Hands, Theological Formulae and 
Prayers, Drugs and what not. Many healings 
have occurred when credulous people put faith in 
media like the above mentioned, which uncon¬ 
sciously arouse the expectancy of the sufferer to 


FAITH 


391 


be healed. All of these are but an indirect mode, 
a creating of the soul’s expectancy to be healed. 

Readers who follow through the Four Reasons 
Why People Are Sick as outlined in “ Psycho 
Analysis—Kinks in the Mind/’ will learn that 
there are certain natural laws and fundamental 
principles—the God power back of all—and that 
our faith in this Omnipotent Power becomes the 
stimulant needed by thinking people to arouse 
within them an expectancy for the healing. 

The brains do not give this power, neither does 
heredity or environment. Therefore, any son of 
the Most High who links himself with the divine 
by the strong chain of faith may have the works 
done in him that have been performed in others. 

Many a person who has studied the truths of 
mental healing, and who may think he believes 
them, yet may weaken or lose his power to effect 
a healing by doubting a little or wavering or 
questioning, or harboring indecision within him¬ 
self about his ability to apply his power. All such 
mental attitudes must be changed to those of posi¬ 
tive confidence, faith and courage. Believe abso¬ 
lutely—have implicit faith. Otherwise you will 
find your one time reservoir of power gradually 
oozing away. 


392 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Not infrequently you will find the very people 
who profess to have no faith in your method of 
treatment getting quickest results. This depends 
a great deal upon the human type involved/ If 
the patient who does not agree with you is of the 
Osseous type, there isn’t one chance in a million 
for him to he healed. If he is of the Mental type, 
the chances are a little more favorable; if a Mus¬ 
cular, his chances are better than the other two. 
But, should the patient be of the Alimentive type, 
the work of the healer is made still easier; and 
with the Thoracic, the results are most satisfac¬ 
tory of all. 

This is due to their respective temperaments. 
If you are talking to an Alimentive, or a Thoracic, 
even if they do not agree with you or do not un¬ 
derstand the method of treatment, don’t “see 
through the thing,” nevertheless the temperament 
of the Alimentive is so cheerful and optimistic, 
and the temperament of the Thoracic so change¬ 
able and open to new things—new angles—that 
they may, in time, be healed readily. The science 
of it is easy to understand. Neither of these types 


*Science has divided man into five types. This division rep¬ 
resents the most important feature of character analysis yet 
known to the human race. The five human types are explained 
m Character Analysis, How to Read People at Sight, bv David 
V. Bush and W. Waugh. ~ S ’ y Q 



FAITH 


393 


holds a determined attitude against the happy or 
the changeable side of life; therefore, they are 
not giving to themselves a continual auto-sugges¬ 
tion contrary to what you are teaching them. 
They do not go along with a set jaw and a posi¬ 
tive mental attitude assertive of the fact that they 
are “agin” everything in general and mental 
healing in particular. They are, therefore, more 
susceptible to new ideas and a change of view to¬ 
ward everything in life. Thus, not holding a posi¬ 
tive attitude against the healing, their minds are 
flexible and open, they have no auto-suggestion 
hostile to your teaching. In this frame of mind, 
every once in a while there filters into their con¬ 
sciousness, free from doubt, some of the sugges¬ 
tion or instruction you are giving them. They may 
say audibly, or think to themselves, “There may 
be something in this; maybe I can be healed. 
Others have been healed, why not I? I guess there 
is efficacy in it, ’’ etc. 

By such a suggestion to themselves, they un¬ 
consciously dislodge their attitude of hostility to 
our teachings. 

While they are thus letting down the bars of 
doubt or perplexity or wonderment, like a flash, 
there may lodge in their subconscious a healing 


394 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


thought. Then, just as a copper wire may be 
charged with electricity, their human bodies simi¬ 
larly become instantly charged with a healing 
energy—Prana, the life principle—and the heal¬ 
ing takes place. 

We have had many remarkable demonstrations 
in our classes, as we have narrated elsewhere, of 
people whose friends were antagonistic to this 
method of healing, did not believe in the power of 
the mind over the body, and who entertained some 
doubts of their own. Their healing occurred 
when they were at home, no longer tense or rebel¬ 
lious in their attitude, and consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously meditating upon the possibility of healing 
in this manner. Then, their minds being free from 
auto-suggestion adverse to healing they suddenly 
caught the great vibrations of our classes as the 
wireless messages were sent, and the healing took 
place. 

As an illustration: There was a woman who 
came from a distant city to attend my public lec¬ 
tures. She had been deaf for forty-five years and 
couldn’t hear a thing I said, but she had been 
reading along mental science lines, and was very 
susceptible. Her husband, just to be a good sport, 
came with her. He didn’t have anything in par* 


FAITH 


395 


ticular against mental healing, nor anything for 
it. He was neutral. He had had rheumatism for 
many years. During the vibration raised by the 
great throng present concentrating for health, he 
was healed. Of course, he couldn’t believe it at 
first. He didn’t know how it had taken place, hut 
nevertheless, he was healed. 

I have often had people come to tell me of their 
sickness and of their aches and pains and begin to 
touch the sore spot tenderly when, lo and behold, 
there was no sore spot there! 

The Universal Energy of Health, whether you 
term it Prana, Spirit, Life, Magnetism, “Mes¬ 
meric Fluid,” Electricity, or God, this Some¬ 
thing can charge a human body just as the dy¬ 
namo can charge steel or copper. 






































' 

























































































PART IV 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


What makes a healer? You may as well ask 
what makes personality. That everybody has the 
power to heal is evident—some to a greater ex¬ 
tent than others. It shows itself first through na¬ 
tive talent and second, through developing the 
talent. It is as true in the realm of healing as in 
the business world that a one talent person who 
will develop that talent may become a ten talent 
healer; just as a one talent business man may 
become a ten talent financier by effort, efficiency 
and general intelligence. 

Every one has within him the power to soothe, 
to comfort, to help and to heal. This power is an 
intangible something, like personal magnetism, 
but it is there. The person who radiates sunshine 
and cheerfulness, optimism and faith has a pres¬ 
ence and a personality that are soothing, uplift¬ 
ing and healing. 

The obligation resting upon a one talent man 
is equal to that upon the ten talent man. If a 
man will stir up the gift within him he need not 


397 




398 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


care whether, in the race for healing others, he 
is a tortoise or a rabbit. He is bonnd to win. 
“When one fully obeys the urge within, not age, 
time, place or condition can stand in the way of 
his achievement.’ * 

Ordinarily speaking, a degree of maturity has 
much to do with lending efficacy to a healer’s ef¬ 
forts. The person who has had a wide range of 
experiences in life, who has “endured,” has, gen¬ 
erally speaking, a more mature understanding 
and sympathy for others. 

Neither age nor youth, however, ought to stand 
in the way of any one. There are young people 
who intuitively and natively have that “some¬ 
thing” within, that delicate, tender sympathetic 
understanding of the others which even age can¬ 
not confer upon some people. 

Who Can Be a Healer 

I believe that the faculty for healing is an in¬ 
herent, natural talent in every son of man. I be¬ 
lieve it because, if nature is let alone and man 
gets out of its way, every ill can be overcome by 
the chemistry of mind. Nature is its own chemical 
laboratory, unerring in its experiments and re¬ 
sults in solving all of its healing problems. 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


3S9 


This is manifested in all animal life. Every 
animal knows intuitively how to heal itself. When 
hurt, it knows where to go for help, either by it¬ 
self or to other animals of its kind. If poisoned 
it intuitively finds the herb for its antidote. When 
wounded it goes to another of its kind and the 
two together are able to heal the laceration. This 
is all done by the natural chemistry which nature 
so wisely and unerringly has put, together with 
the intuition and ability to heal itself, into the 
anatomy of each animal. 

Man is no less powerful than the lower animals, 
neither is he limited in the operation of healing 
laws for himself. In other words, lie has so much 
intuition, so much guidance, and so much chem¬ 
icalization working within him—the great chemi¬ 
cal laboratory of God—that he also can heal him¬ 
self and others without employing foreign prop¬ 
erties and substances. 

Wherefore I believe that every one is a nat¬ 
ural healer and that the power to heal is a gift to 
all who seek to understand and control the cos¬ 
mic forces of life and love. Love, the healing 
chemical with which the healer works, flows 
through each of us. It is only a matter of recog¬ 
nizing this and of being willing to work with na- 


400 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


ture to heal ourselves for the faith that we may 
become healers as well as healed to manifest it¬ 
self. 


Faith in Self 

After one has had the call to heal and has not 
been “ disobedient unto the heavenly vision/ ’ as 
Paul says, in short feels himself qualified, to the 
satisfaction of his own conscience, to become a 
mental therapeutist, one of the first and most es¬ 
sential things is that he should have confidence 
in himself, in the law and “having on the breast¬ 
plate of righteousness.” 

He must be absolutely convinced in his own 
mind that there is no disease but what may be 
helped, if not cured, if the healer and the patient 
are en rapport with one another. 

There may be patients whom certain practi¬ 
tioners cannot heal. Different elements enter into 
the equation of healing, such as home surround¬ 
ings or business association, where the patient’s 
mind is upset by disturbing prejudice and skepti¬ 
cism. Moreover there may be in the case of some 
healers and practitioners various other little hin¬ 
drances which may prevent a healing. In that 
case, the healer must not give up in despair or 
discourage a patient. He should simply be big 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


401 


enough in spirit and heart to recommend the pa¬ 
tient to some other practitioner or some other 
method. 

The practitioner will often he a court of last 
resort. He should he ready for this and delighted 
to have patients who have been given up by every 
other known method in the world, and are veri¬ 
tably on their last legs. It should encourage you, 
and inspire you, the more to know that you have 
the opportunity to give help and save life when 
every other means has gone by the hoard. 

Our individual success in the practice of men¬ 
tal treatment is explained by the knowledge 
gained of the science by our experience, by the 
implicit confidence we have in our methods and 
the regular, earnest and persistent manner in 
which we do the work. 

The words of a great pathologist to an under-- 
study, “Don’t underrate the influence of your own 
personality, learn to give confidence to your pa¬ 
tients,’ J are of inestimable value to the mental 
therapeutist. Remember that it is the Spirit 
within that doeth the healing, that it is a God- 
law that you are operating, that when all is said 
and done, whatever may be your religious con¬ 
victions or philosophical belief, whatever Power 


402 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


is back of nature, call it God or what-not, it is this 
Power, God, which does the healing. So each and 
every healer who is operating these natural laws 
is a partner with the Divine, and because there 
can be no limitation and no failure with the In¬ 
finite, you may be inspired to have the greatest 
confidence in your own personality and in the 
healing art of others. 

The moment the eye of the patient meets the eye of the 
physician, psychological action , influencing the course of 
the disease, at once takes place through the patient's un¬ 
conscious mind. The depression caused by the doctor’s 
bad manners or gloomy looks may be combated actively 
by the patient’s reason, and will yet have a bad effect, 
MALGKE LOT, on his body through the unconscious 
mind, or “instinct.” Just as with our material science 
and physical skill we seek by drugs and other agents to 
influence the body for good, so invariably (and, as I have 
said, most often unconsciously) does the physician’s mind 
influence that of the patient. The “gift of healing” that 
some men seem to possess to a marvelous extent, so that 
few sick can leave their presence without feeling better, 
is a purely unconscious psychic quality, at any rate in its 
origin; though, like other gifts, it can of course be per¬ 
fected by use. 

Stick-to-it-iveness 

Every practitioner should have a well-devel¬ 
oped will to determine that nothing shall block 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


403 


him in alleviating suffering. Let him be dogged 
in his faith, in himself, in the law and God. The' 
second book in this series, The Psychology of Suc¬ 
cess, is largely devoted to the development of the 
will. 

The successful practitioner should possess the 
power to turn his mind steadfastly to the truth 
which lies in his mind. This will enable him to 
keep steadily on in his search for the ultimate 
truth and healing. Scripture says: “If any man 
shall do His will he shall know of the doctrine. ” 
It is as well to have a will to heal as it is to do 
good or have a will to succeed. 

“But where there is real confidence,” says 
Hugo Munsterberg, “based, perhaps, on the fame 
of the doctor and on the reports of his powerful 
achievements, there the conditions for effective 
suggestions are greatly strengthened. Still better 
is it if this confidence in the man is combined with 
a sincere hope for recovery. To lie down on a 
lounge on which hundreds have been cured fas¬ 
cinates the imagination sufficiently to give to 
every suggestion a much better chance to over¬ 
come the counter-idea. The expectation that 
something wonderful will happen can even pro¬ 
duce an almost hypnoid state. ’’ 


404 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


One Handicap 

The only drawback or handicap that I know is 
that the healer himself is not always composed, 
tilled with peace and harmony. 

Nevertheless some wonderful demonstrations 
have been effected by healers who are sick them¬ 
selves. They have not yet demonstrated their 
own health satisfactorily but do instruct, inspire 
and arouse in others the latent spirit to heal by 
the force of their own magnetic personality. 

So, with a mind that is not disturbed, with a 
mind that can be brought under control, irrespec¬ 
tive of an inharmonious or negative environ¬ 
ment to which it may be subjected, almost anyone 
who has the spirit of true determination to suc¬ 
ceed can become a healer. 

The ambition to heal and the desire to serve are 
the God-given credentials of the healer. To the 
extent that the healer is unselfish and wholly sin¬ 
cere, will he back up his intention by study, ap¬ 
plication and practice. 

Stir Up the Gift 

Above everything remember that the greatest 
genius in any line must develop the talent within, 
or, as Scripture says, “stir up the gift of God 
which is in thee.’’ 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


405 


Perhaps more people fail in trying to be prac¬ 
titioners because they do not keep np their studies 
than for any other one reason. In this kind of 
work, a person may not rest on his oars. If he 
makes a success today, he must study tomorrow 
to cope with the future adequately. 

A practitioner who wants to do his best will 
enter every class that he possibly can, as well as 
read every hook that he can get his hands on. 
Class instruction under a competent teacher is, for 
the ordinary person, of inestimable value. 

Bear in mind, no matter what your native tal¬ 
ent as a healer, that God helps those who help 
themselves, and He will help you to be a better 
practitioner if you keep the cobwebs out of your 
brain and your cerebration alive by reading, 
studying, meditating and following classes of in¬ 
struction as well as pursuing actual practice. 


What Is Spiritual Healing? 

And may I impress upon the practitioner al¬ 
ways to be practical? The world can not advance 
without idealism and dreamers. We admit this. 
But the great danger so many metaphysical and 
“spiritual” healers encounter is that they have 
their heads way up in the clouds of idealism, while 
their feet are dangling in mid-air. Always keep 
your feet on the terra firma of practicality. 

There are plenty of teachers who have obses¬ 
sions, amounting almost to mania, about “spir¬ 
itual development” and “cosmic consciousness,” 
but who literally ignore the body in which their 
spirit is tabernacled in this mundane journey. Be¬ 
ware of the foolish, irrational, irresponsible, and 
childish babble in which they often indulge. 

You usually find this sort of teacher or would- 
be healer, in the ranks of the unsuccessful. His 
excuse for not being successful, not making 
money, and not having a following, is that he is 
so spiritual and high-minded that others cannot 
follow him. These pseudo-teachers compliment 
themselves with such silly illusions as that they 
are “too deep” for the common man. 


406 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


407 


Remember, that the most scientific thesis and 
the deepest philosophical thought can he ex¬ 
pressed in language so simple that a child can 
understand. Whenever a teacher is so “wise” 
and so “deep” that the common man cannot un¬ 
derstand him, yon may put it down for a fact that 
he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Unable 
to make his philosophy or his religion attractive 
or convincing, he takes shelter behind the storm 
fence of “depth.” 

Exceptions to All Rules 

There are, of course, exceptions to all rules. 
Generalities are not always cock sure indications 
in anything, but broadly speaking, brunets make 
the best magnetic healers. They are more steady 
in mind and action and therefore have a more con¬ 
stant flow of magnetism. On the other hand, 
blonds make the best electrical healers, because 
of their impulsive temperament and generally ac¬ 
tive movements. 

The foregoing is what may be generally stated, 
namely, that brunets make the best magnetic heal¬ 
ers and blonds the best electrical healers. 

The Main Thing 

The main thing for the practitioner in mental 
therapeutics to bear in mind is that he must have 


408 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


absolute faith, confidence and conviction that his 
methods actually heal. The subconscious mind in¬ 
stinctively knows when a person has not the faith 
of his conviction. The subconscious mind will not 
deliver or act upon a suggestion given by one 
who does not possess absolute self reliance. The 
result of disbelief is that in absolute auto-sugges¬ 
tion the subconscious mind will not do what we 
are asking of it. 

The operator, to succeed, must believe in his 
methods; parents must have absolute faith when 
talking to their children while asleep; and if the 
wife is going to help the husband she must have 
absolute faith. Disbelief acts as a strong auto- 
suggestion and the subconscious mind instinc¬ 
tively reacts to influences of an unfavorable char¬ 
acter. 

Besides being positive, optimistic, sympathetic, 
cheerful and filled with faith, the healer should 
cultivate an atmosphere of calm and poise indi¬ 
cating that he is sure of himself and the things for 
which he stands. 

Do You Believe? 

Have confidence in yourself and in your healing 
power. It is a divine heritage—given to all who 
believe they can heal. 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


409 


When you begin to be known as a successful 
healer you will bear complimentary reports re¬ 
garding your demonstrations; your name will be 
spoken abroad in the market place. At this point 
do not lose your bead; keep as calm and unruf¬ 
fled as the dignity of your high office demands. 
Do not yield to the conceit that you have a special 
gift. You are now exercising a power which vir¬ 
tually all people possess—you are, however, 
still merely learning bow. You are an instrument 
in the bands of Natural Law. Do not overlook 
this fact. The good reports you bear regarding 
yourself and the inspiration which this gives you, 
may confer upon you added strength, if you keep 
your bead. Remember, all of the forces of the 
universe are with you. Keep your poise, keep 
control over your tongue, bear yourself in a dig¬ 
nified, God-like way. 

Doubtless, everyone has the power to soothe 
and assist in healing others. In some this power 
is manifested more clearly than in others. Their 
personality is soothing. They radiate cheerful¬ 
ness. Their appearance and manner seem to radi¬ 
ate inner power and serenity. Their speech 
vibrates with hope and optimism, and even their 
touch seems to be magnetic with healing virtues. 


410 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


These are all natural endowments. They are an 
index of the only “gift of healing’’ which exists. 

Why Some Fail 

More people fail of achievement, whatever he 
their walk of life, for lack of faith in themselves, 
than for any other one reason. The same is true 
of those who have the gift of healing. Their 
failure does not lie so much in the meagerness 
of their gift, as in their lack of diligence in using 
what they have to the best advantage. 

Remember, the snail has as good a chance in 
the race as the rabbit. The plodder has as good 
a chance as the genius. Use the gift you have, 
—be it great or small. Offer it upon the altar 
of service to God and man, and many will rise 
up and call you blessed. 

The fact is, however, that the gift concerning 
which we write is one common to the race and 
may be manifested by almost anyone who has suf¬ 
ficient confidence in himself to try it and who 
has sufficient earnestness to throw his heart into 
the work. 


The Highest Type Healer 

All things being equal, the noblest, purest and 
most consecrated person will be the most efficient 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


411 


in healing and helping relieve others of their 
ailments, troubles and failures. Goodness, pur¬ 
ity, truth and honesty all vibrate a magnetism 
of their own which cannot be described but which 
is felt by all who come into the presence of those 
possessing these virtues. 

Above everything, the healer must have faith in 
himself and possess a spirit and will to exercise 
this faith. The psychic force or influence which 
heals is latent in all, but potentially, under the 
control of the will. One with a strong will, with 
a commanding personality, will be able to concen¬ 
trate more quickly and forcibly, and thus con¬ 
trol with greater intensity and precision this 
psychic healing force, the command of which 
makes the truly great healer. 

Sincerity, sympathy, kindness, consideration, 
capacity for deep feeling and signal earnestness 
—all must characterize the operator. Unless he 
has a definite conscious purpose to do good and 
render service, his efforts can never have the 
maximum of success. 

True, the possession of native ability means a 
good start for the operator; originality and gen¬ 
ius help considerably, yet be it known, that any- 


412 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


one with good common sense and a desire to serve 
may become a proficient and helpful practitioner. 

The successful practitioner must see good in 
everything, and everybody. He must look up and 
not down; “look out and not in and lend a hand.” 

The poem below expresses in a nutshell many 
of the qualities which make a healer. 

IF YOU WOULD BE A FBIEND TO MAN 

Withhold the word that has a sting; 

Avoid the answer's bitter fling; 

Breathe sentences replete with hope, 

And give a ivider, brighter scope. 

Lend a deft hand in time of need; 

The traveler s cry for succor heed; 

Bind all his wounds and bathe his brow, 

And offer comfort to him now; 

If you would be a friend to man. 

Refuse to spread the gossip's tale. 

Or boast to men who seem to fail, 

But give, like oil on troubled waves. 

The hint that helps, the word that saves. 

Tire not of errands oft and swift 
That men from hopeless grief can lift; 

Lend words of comfort to the weak. 

And to the outcast smile and speak, 

If you would be a friend to man. 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


413 


Inspire the one who's lost his grip, 

And feels that he is bound to slip; 

Put your hand into his and say, 

“If you hang on, you'll win some day!" 

Not only speah but give the aid 
That saves a brother when afraid; 

And when a man is out and down 
With your Tcind smiles mix not a frown — 

If you would be a friend to man. 

—David Y. Bush. 

Have a Purpose 

The successful healer ought to have a definite 
purpose. He should enter upon his high calling 
with the sole desire to render the greatest amount 
of service with the gift he has; otherwise his 
energy and time will he wasted. 

His thoughts of helpfulness will greatly assist 
in the restoration of the patient’s health. The 
healer should ever be ready to go out of his way 
to render service to those who need his help. He 
should he positive in his speech and bearing, never 
wavering, never vacillating. If he have belief in 
himself, he will inspire in the patient similar 
confidence and faith. Without it no healer can be 
successful. 

The operator should not only be positive but 
absolutely fearless in his attitude toward any ob- 


414 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


stacle which may present itself. He must always 
feel that he controls the situation; that there is 
nothing in heaven above or earth below, on land 
or sea, but can be overcome by his brand of men¬ 
tal science. He must be a real ‘ 4 Pike's Peaker” 

that is, he must expect to accomplish whatever 
he sets out to do. I CAN, AND I WILL should 
be the attitude of a successful healer. 

This positive attitude of mind will give him 
that definite, positive, fearless bearing which will 
put stronger vibrations of healing into his sug¬ 
gestions. He will not be a rambler—a doubter— 
forever going about with a question mark after 
his affirmations. 

This definite, positive attitude of mind should 
always predominate when the practitioner is in¬ 
terrogating a patient or giving a treatment. With 
sincerity, with utter confidence he should quietly, 
but positively proclaim the conviction of his inner 
soul: “I can and I will help that patient.'’ 

If the practitioner be timid or doubtful his tone 
of voice will surely betray him. The patient will 
feel the vacillating vibrations in every word the 
doubtful practitioner utters. Wlierefore, friend 
practitioner, do you make your suggestions firmly 
and positively ? Look the part of confidence, cour- 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


415 


age and belief. The impression yon outwardly 
convey for good or for ill, leaves its indelible 
stamp upon the subject. Guard well your voice, 
your looks, your words, your actions. 

Awake! thou that sleepest in the sense mind! Rouse 
yourself, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You are 
a king! Bestir yourself; the Christ of God is born in you, 
and the hour of your reign is at hand! 

Make a start. You will, of course, have to creep 
before you walk, but commence. Ho not delay. 
Start today. Begin treating someone. You will 
always find someone, if not in your immediate 
home, some of your friends, who will need your 
help. Get your experience now! 

Grow by Practice 

Elbert Hubbard, who has become the greatest 
writer since Shakespeare, said he became a writer 
by writing. We become healers by healing. 

We are asked time and time again by those 
who are ambitious to be healers and who have 
not demonstrated health themselves, “Must I wait 
until I have my healing before I heal others?” 
Some of the best healers I know are men and 
women who have not yet demonstrated their own 
perfect health. It is not necessary for one to be 
perfect to render service. Begin healing others 


416 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and your own healing will probably take place 
in due time. In getting one’s mind ready for 
healing one of the absolutely essential things is 
to get it off of oneself, to forget one’s troubles, 
to let go. When one is unable to do this by con¬ 
centration or personal application, perchance the 
very thing he needs is to have his mind diverted; 
and very often the way to do this is to go about 
“doing good,” trying to heal others. 

One great teacher has well said: 

He who uses suggestion for the purpose of making man¬ 
kind better, gains a reflex power that is simply divine. 
Take the great moral teachers of the world—Confucius, 
Mahomet, Socrates, Plato, and the power developed in 
themselves by the utilization of moral truths and teach¬ 
ings, and see the phenomenal change which was wrought 
in their own lives. The greatest of all—the Christ—the 
embodiment of all that was highest and best and noblest, 
grew in power and in wisdom as he went about doing 
good. It was said of Him in His boyhood, “He increased 
in wisdom and in stature and in favor with Cod and man.” 
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge, and in His life 
and work He used it to inspire men to be good, noble, 
and pure, and to do good. He was greater than any other 
man because He was better. Has whole life on earth was 
given to man for man. In this He found development of 
power, largeness of wisdom, and His future perpetuity 
in this world. 


Work for Others 

In my classes I have had cases without number 
of people who were healed when they forgot them¬ 
selves and began to “work on others.” The 
critics of Christ cried “Physician, heal thyself!” 
Christ nowhere pretended to perfect physical 
health and made no rule that one must he perfect 
in health before attempting to heal others. 

Suppose a house were on fire, you would not 
have to be a trained fireman in order to carry 
water or hold a hose to help put out the flames. 
Suppose your friend were dying of thirst, you 
would not in order to give him a drink of water 
have to he a perfect man. Hence, do not wait to 
be perfect yourself—commence now! Wherever 
you find anyone who needs your help, and who so¬ 
licits or is willing that you render service, he the 
good angel of service hearing the glad tidings of 
health. 

How Much Do You Give? 

It is not so much what a man knows that blesses 
and helps others and gives him power hut what he 
gives out. “Give and it shall be given to you 
again”—is as spiritually true in our endeavor to 


417 


418 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


heal others as in any other walk of life. We help 
ourselves by helping others. This is the universal 
law, never disproved and which will never be abro¬ 
gated. If you want to develop power, wisdom and 
helpfulness, begin to practice that which you want. 

Even a magnetic healer does not necessarily 
have to have a healthy body. Some of the ablest 
magnetic healers I know have been victims of 
physical inharmony. They looked more like a 
ghost of health than the perfection of physical 
strength. Generally speaking, a healthy body 
bespeaks strength, but when it comes to healing 
this is not always the case. More than one of the 
transcendent minds known to civilization have 
been lodged in physically weak bodies. After all, 
whether the method used is the magnetic or some 
other, back of the method practiced is mind, and 
a frail body may have the strongest kind of mind. 

Personal Habits 

Without any exception whatever, a healer 
should be careful in his personal habits and attire. 
One of the best healers in the country loses many, 
many patients because of the odor of tobacco 
always carried on his clothes. Another great 
healer of my acquaintance loses patients (for they 
have told me) because of his offensive breath. As 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


419 


for care of the teeth, general cleanliness and neat¬ 
ness of dress it seems almost unnecessary to give 
any admonition regarding them. 

The true healer gives all of himself to his pa¬ 
tient—his time, sympathy and patience; his love, 
wisdom and strength. The higher the morals of 
the healer, the more he has to give his patients. 
Good habits create good feeling for everybody 
and are of utmost importance for one who expects 
to be a successful healer. Carelessness in dress 
and personal grooming will tell heavily against 
him. 

An invalid who is at all sensitive will find the 
odor of tobacco, liquor, drugs or soiled linen or 
of perspiration most offensive, and will either 
give up treatments or go to someone else who is 
not personally objectionable. 

The healer should not only he positive and con¬ 
fident, controlled and well poised so that no doubt 
or other adverse conditions shall awaken in the 
patient, hut he should look straight into the eyes of 
the patient he is treating or conversing with; 
otherwise he will awaken suspicion in the mind 
of the subject. 


420 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Sincere and Honest 

No one ought to be a physician to the soul and 
body who is not perfectly sincere, honest and open 
in all of life’s social relations. A sensitive patient 
very readily detects an operator who is insincere 
and unsympathetic. 

If a man is a slave to bad habits, it is natural 
for the patient to demand that he cure himself 
before he tries to cure others. In short, a suc¬ 
cessful practitioner should he master of himself 
at all times. 

Should you have a failure or two, let this not 
discourage you—try again. Muster more faith 
and confidence in yourself—strike out to conquer. 
There is no defeat in any walk of life except to 
the man who admits it. The psychological laws 
underlying mental healing have worked for others 
and they will work for you. The principles have 
been tried and found not wanting. If one fails, 
say, “I will succeed”—“I will succeed”—“Pike’s 
Peak or bust!” 

Is Knowledge of Anatomy Necessary? 

Some people who have been trained in the old 
school affect to prefer a healer who is a student 
of anatomy and pathology. It is well to remem- 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


421 


ber that in spiritual discernment and efficiency, 
“God hath chosen the weak things of the world 
to confound the things which are mighty.’ ’ When 
one gets “in tune with the Infinite,” it does not 
matter whether he is a university graduate or a 
hill billy, the law works just the same for him. 
It does not matter whether he is the mayor of the 
city, a policeman, a university president, or the 
most menial of the servants of man. Whoever of 
them rings the fire alarm signal, will, if the signal 
is in working order, work it just as well as the 
other. With regard to the natural laws for men¬ 
tal healing it does not matter whether a person 
understands pathology or anatomy, the law works 
just the same. 

The mind of the patient must be kept pure, 
clean and entirely free from disorderly and dis¬ 
eased pictures. Thoughts, ideals, pictures must 
all be of health, success, harmony, at-one-ment, 
It is very plain that if one is thinking about his 
anatomy and pathological condition he is filling 
his mind with disease and ill thought instead of 
health, harmony and growth. 

Like many modern movements, this psycholog¬ 
ical wave has drawn in many practitioners of the 
“weaker sex.” This is in its favor really, for 


422 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


while man is supposed to be stronger and more 
forceful, he is more or less hound to tradition 
in the matter of religion and education and has, 
to a less degree, that intuition, that human in¬ 
sight, which are generally so acute in women. 

Some Suggestions 

I believe if the ordinary practitioner will fol¬ 
low the suggestion given below it will add to each 
teacher ’s reputation, enlarge his practice and 
thus spread the message of health, happiness and 
success to a greater number of people. 

I have found in my own practice that by get¬ 
ting several people together in a small class and 
then adding to it until I have a large class I secure 
more and quicker demonstrations. Vibrations, of 
course, are generated more quickly and there is 
more dynamic mental power in a class of fifty 
people than in that of one or two. 

Therefore, if I were a teacher, locally I would 
have classes at different but stated times—per¬ 
haps every three or four months. These classes 
would include both those I had in my private con¬ 
ferences and new ones who would join. 

Then the class should be put on consecutively 
for five days without any breaks. Generate the 


WHAT MAKES A HEALER 


423 


power, create the psychological atmosphere, and 
increase the expectancy and faith of the class 
members to the highest degree. 

Any local teacher could have at least four 
classes a year, probably more. Members who 
have been treated privately could upon special 
terms, or without any tuition fee, be allowed to 
attend. Those who have been healed in former 
classes should also be encouraged to join. Thus 
the inspiration of their healing would add to the 
faith of others; their own power of concentra¬ 
tion and of helpfulness would be stimulated and 
altogether the message would be given an added 
impetus. 

If you are a teacher be sure to have classes 
several times a year. This will become an estab¬ 
lished routine, and, just as people look forward 
during the year to special holidays and seasons 
of spiritual uplift, your people will learn to look 
forward to the time when you have your regular 
classes. 

Those who have been regular in their attend¬ 
ance upon your classes will be big advertisers of 
your ability to newcomers. I suggest, therefore, 
your allowing those who have taken your classes 
to continue to attend without any extra tuition. 


424 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


This will add a tremendous amount of interest 
and enthusiasm and will so generate a spiritual 
and mental atmosphere and so stimulate the faith 
spirit that your practice will grow and grow by 
force of its own momentum and the spontaneous 
advertising it receives from healed patients. In 
this series we are citing a number of different 
methods of healing. Let the practitioner take the 
method as outlined, or parts of each method, as 
may appeal to him, leaving the others for those to 
whom they in turn appeal. I always teach my 
classes to let intuition be the guide. It will not 
be long before the practitioner will have a “feel¬ 
ing” as to the particular method he should use 
for each individual. When one is letting the spirit 
lead him, he seldom makes a mistake—never if 
he listens to the still, small voice. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


Healing Others and Ourselves 
Unburden the Mind 

I believe all reputable physicians of the day 
appreciate the therapeutic value of having the 
patient unburden his mind. Most every physician 
now asks the patient at the very beginning, 
“What trouble have you had of late? What dis¬ 
appointments or sorrows or misfortunes have 
crossed your path? What difficulties have you 
had to surmount or problems to solve ? What has 
battled you or set you back?” This interrogation 
is then followed as much by psychological sug¬ 
gestion as by pills and powders. A recognized 
authority in Materia Medica says: 

An Illustration 

But a few months ago I had a patient, a young man, 
whose nerves were all "going to pieces.” Four weeks of 
treatment having helped him but little, he proposed to 
take a six months’ vacation, and to this I agreed. All the 
while this young man was under treatment he was carrying 
some great burden on his mind. The last time he called 
at the office before starting on his vacation, as he was 


425 




426 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


saying good-bye, I said, “There is just a word I want to 
say before yon leave. I am impressed that you are carry¬ 
ing some extraordinary burden, something is worrying you. 
Now, I want to be honest with you; I am fully satisfied 
that your vacation will do you little good unless you can 
change your state of mind. If there is anything you can 
do to help your mental state before going on the vacation, I 
beg of you to do it. If you are merely a victim of worry, 
cast it from you, otherwise I fear you will return to me at 
the end of your vacation in no way improved.” My 
admonition brought a strange expression to his face; 
nevertheless, he bade me good-bye and disappeared, as I 
supposed, to go on his vacation. 

Imagine our surprise the following day when he rushed 
into the office, all out of breath, exclaiming: “No vacation 
for me. Fve found something better. I came to tell you 
I am a well man. That last talk of yours yesterday is what 
fixed me. That was worth a thousand dollars. You did 
me more good in two minutes than you have done by 
treating me for a month. I knew all the time a vacation 
would not do me any good, but just didn’t have the nerve 
to straighten things up. After I left your office yesterday, 
I just went home and I began to clean everything up. 
I had five or six jobs to make right, but I did them all up 
square. Then I went up into the attic and I got right 
down on my knees and prayed like my mother used to 
pray; and I tell you, doctor, I am a well man, a new man. 
Look at my nerves this morning, aren’t they steady ? I tell 
you it is an awful thing to go around day after day with 
your conscience smiting you, and your mind all full of 
wrong-doing. Now the next time you get a chap like me, 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


427 


make a speech like that to begin with, and it will save yon 
both a lot of trouble.” 

The young man continued to express his gratitude for 
the little part I had been able to play in his recovery, and 
I am glad to record that his mental rejuvenation was not 
transient, it resulted in permanent physical and psychic 
improvement. Of course, the patient saw no reason just 
then why this moral suggestion should not have been given 
to him the first time he consulted me, but it probably 
would not have worked at that time. The way had to be 
prepared, his confidence had to be gained, and it was also 
necessary to demonstrate to him that the best physical 
treatment was not able materially to help him, and then 
when the psychological moment came, it was possible to 
say the few words that resulted in his starting out on a 
campaign for his mental and moral deliverance. 

Use Different Ways 

So anything that will help the patient to “let 
go” should be used, for one must mentally let go, 
before he will be able to physically let go. The 
patient must feel perfectly at ease and comfort¬ 
able in mind as well as in body, in order that the 
best results may be gained. 

I always ask my patient what they believe or 
what the doctors say is the trouble. A full and 
frank statement of symptoms helps to unburden 
the patient’s mind. When a person can unload 
what he thinks is the matter with him, half the 


428 


PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


battle is won. Sometimes with his explanation or 
narration of his difficulties, the sickness itself dis¬ 
appears. 

“What’s Your Trouble?” 

Generally speaking, it is not a good thing to talk 
about our troubles and our ills and our sicknesses, 
but I have found in prognosing that it is a good 
thing to ask people as a preliminary, “What’s 
your trouble?” They have been told so often 
probably and it has sunk so deeply into their sub¬ 
conscious mind that they have this, that or the 
other sickness, that when they are asked, “What 
is your trouble” and can explain it, the subcon¬ 
scious mind is reached and cheered at the thought 
of unloading its burden of care. No matter how 
horrible the sickness which the patient has, con¬ 
fession is a start along the road to getting rid 
of it. 

Remember, however, not to dwell on your sick¬ 
ness in the future or think about what you have 
been told is the matter with you. Perhaps your 
malady has been wrongly diagnosed. Perhaps 
sickness-suggestion has augmented your trouble. 

In “Philosophy of Mental Healing,” comment¬ 
ing upon this phase of mental healing, the author 
says: 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


429 


The knowledge which gives power to heal diseased con¬ 
ditions, also makes it possible to relieve all nnnatural 
conditions. In snrgical cases distinct results may be 
produced by the removal of mental distress, fear, anxiety, 
worry, grief, pain and every degree of agitation, all of 
which are obstructions to nature’s restorative processes and 
help to delay recovery. By no means the least of these 
results is the power to remove the particular impression 
of fear, fright, and mental or nervous shock which was 
produced at the time of the accident, and which frequently 
delays recovery because it continues active subconsciously 
in the mind of the patient, regardless of memory. 

Mental assistance in quieting fear is legitimate 
metaphysical work, which is in some degree valuable in 
every surgical case. Mental Healing readily accomplishes 
this result, frees the mind of agitation and restores natural 
action in every part of the system, by removing mental 
obstructions to recovery, thereby rendering to nature the 
only advantageous assistance possible. 

Right Mental Conditions 

Under right mental conditions bones knit more rapidly 
and firmly, flesh heals in a fraction of the time usually 
claimed to be necessary, and scars are less prominent be¬ 
cause of rapid natural activity during the healing process. 
Fever is reduced or avoided in both pulse and temperature, 
and suppuration is reduced to the minimum of natural 
restorative process. Liability to blood poisoning is also 
lessened; in fact, it is an unheard of complication, when 
pure metaphysical influence can be exerted unobstructed, 
because all the forces of natural mental control of every 


430 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


minute part, organ and function of the human system, are 
brought to bear, through the patient’s own mind, in super¬ 
conscious action, to remove every obstruction, establish 
healthy action, and build new tissue with perfect atoms 
and healthy molecules of material. 

Through the influence of mental treatment based upon a 
correct understanding of metaphysical principles, natural 
sleep is readily established, while appetite, digestion and 
assimilation are invariably better than under the influence 
of drug medication. The sensation of pain is always kept 
at the lowest degree possible; frequently, even in severe 
cases, it is entirely removed and avoided. Under favor¬ 
able circumstances the ultimate of these results may be 
produced. They are not in any sense miraculous, but are 
perfectly natural results of mental action established 
through clear understanding of the laws of life. 

It is not yet within the scope of mental action to set a 
broken bone of important size, which is so far displaced 
that mechanical appliance is necessary for support. In 
such event, a competent surgeon is required properly to 
reduce the fracture, and to splint and ligate, so that the 
bones cannot leave their natural position; otherwise nature 
has no power to repair the injury. This work is purely 
mechanical and absolutely necessary. In similar cases 
severe physical injury to tissue may require the same aid. 
The muscular system, however, is more directly under con¬ 
trol of mental action, and many surprising results in 
changing muscular conditions are readily produced by 
thought influences. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


431 


Nature Does the Rest 

The surgeon has the mechanical knowledge required 
properly to set the bones, cleanse, ligate, stitch, secure and 
make outwardly comfortable the injured parts, and to see 
that suitable cleansing and mechanical repairing are 
properly attended to until recovery, but that is the extent 
of his field of action. He cannot direct the placing of a 
single atom in reconstruction—he can only make the 
patient fairly comfortable and wait for Nature to do the 
rest. 

Now the Nature which restores tissue is Universal Mind 
in super-conscious activity; her laws are the laws of mind 
and her methods are mental actions. Through his knowl¬ 
edge of these methods and laws, so far as yet acquired, 
the rightly educated metaphysician readily reaches the 
case, removes obstructions, and assists in establishing 
natural action. No human power can do more, or do it 
in any better way. The only advancement possible lies in 
the increase of knowledge, and metaphysicians are labor¬ 
ing earnestly to add to the present store of information. 

Nature's ways are the ways of life, health, strength, 
comfort and happiness. The active force of Nature is the 
Universal Mind, which is always alive and always strong 
in the activity of Spirit. Spiritual Intelligence is the 
active principle of every individual mind. 

The Soul of the Universe is one magnificent unit of 
essential principle. The Life of the universe is one grand 
whole of active law. By exercise of the divine faculty of 
intelligent comprehension, each individual may share all 
the innate good of both these universal realities. 


432 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Not Always Thus 

This is not always necessary, however, but it is, 
as a rule the most important thing in finding out 
the trouble, the cause of our sickness and getting 
ready to heal it. We repeat this may not always 
be true but it very often is. 

Hr. Morton Prince has well said: 

When the hysterical manifestations are due to the 
functioning of dissociated subconscious ideas it is not 
always necessary, as some writers insist, to recall those 
ideas to the personal waking consciousness. It is enough 
to break up the subconscious complex or to suggest an¬ 
tagonistic ideas, or to resynthesize the ideas, in the man¬ 
ner already described, into a healthy complex which gives 
a true appreciation of the facts which they represent. This 
can be done in hypnosis. After waking, though amnesia 
for the previous subconscious ideas may persist, the 
symptoms disappear, for those harmful subconscious ideas 
which caused the trouble have ceased to exist. 

Hysterical attacks that are due to auto-suggestion can 
be removed, as a rule, by simple suggestion. Automatisms, 
like contractures, tics, spasms, convulsions and crises, tend 
to cease with the restoration of the fully synthesized per¬ 
sonality if the dissociating apprehensions and emotions 
have been removed and healthy complexes have been 
substituted therefor. 

Not Always, But Usually 

Remember that is is not always necessary for 
us to recall that which has caused our sickness. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


433 


For instance, there was a man in one of my classes 
who was healed of blindness. He was one of the 
most optimistic and lovable men I have ever 
known. As we were going through our healing 
class, asking our members what had been the 
cause of their sickness—what was the kink—the 
good fellow said, 4 'My, I wish I knew what was 
my kink.” His sight was restored within two 
weeks. He had not touched the "kink” himself. 
After the sight began to return I had occasion to 
see him again, at which time he once more said, 

4 4 1 wish I knew what was my kink. ’ ’ In our big 
class I had failed to take up with him personally 
the cause of his blindness. But when he said for 
the second time, 44 I wish I knew what was my 
kink,” I was able to direct him, by tracing it 
back to an accident. He was a brick layer. One 
day in breaking a brick in two, a piece flew up and 
struck him in the right eye, causing instant blind¬ 
ness. A few months afterward he had sunstroke 
which caused blindness in the other eye. He had 
been blind for three years although he had seen 
many specialists. He had no particular kink. 
It was an accident. 


434 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Remember, we say, barring accidents, contagion 
(and most contagion is mental fear), wrong eat¬ 
ing, lack of exercise, confinement, bad air and 
improper breathing, most of our sickness is a 
matter of mind. 


Accident and Blindness 

This man’s blindness was due to an accident. 
He was looking for a kink but it was not there. 
Yet his sight was restored without locating the 
kink—the complex. 

It might make a kink in your mind if you try 
to find a kink. I mean by that, you may make a 
strained effort to discover what had made you 
sick. You run through the four reasons why, 
and can not find it and you become so upset men¬ 
tally that you are worse than if you had known 
that most people are sick because of some kink. 
So I repeat, it is not always necessary to bring 
to your conscious mind the cause—the kink. In 
the majority of cases this is the most important 
thing. 

I also should like to reiterate that after you 
have discovered your kink the next most important 
thing is for you to be big enough to face your 
weakness, to determine to overcome it and to set 
about changing your way of thinking and living. 

Facing the Music 

For instance, one day after I had explained 
carefully that negative thoughts such as envy, 


435 


436 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


jealousy, hatred, grudge, chip on the shoulder, 
“I might forgive hut never forget” and “I can¬ 
not forgive,” may produce sickness. I dismissed 
my class. Just as I was leaving the hall a woman 
came up and uttered just one sentence. As she 
spoke this sentence it seemed as though a ball 
of fire jumped from my shoulder and struck her 
in the side, where she had pains. This occurred 
after the demonstration of magnetic healing, 
where both the class and myself had generated 
a wonderful amount of magnetism. She was 
instantly healed. It might have been the magne¬ 
tism which effected the healing, but the magnetism 
could not have done it if it had not been for the 
condition of her mind. When she approached to 
speak to me, she had determined in her soul that 
she would let go of the grudge she had entertained 
against a brother and was on her way to make such 
a confession, to tell me it was all right. But be¬ 
fore she even got it out of her mouth, the ball of 
fire struck her and she was healed. 

In another evening class, as we were conduct¬ 
ing a silent treatment, one woman who had suf¬ 
fered for many years from curvature of the spine, 
determined in that silent treatment that she would 
make it right with a relative. The very instant 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


437 


that she had let go of the old grudge thought and 
had said, “I will make it right with my relative, 
forgive him, forget the past and press toward 
the future,” it seemed as though somebody came 
behind her and pressed a finger upon her spine 
and instantly caused the curvature to leave and 
the spine to become normal. 

These illustrations may he multiplied by hun¬ 
dreds. The first point is, it is not always abso¬ 
lutely necessary to find our kink, to put our finger 
upon one or more of the four reasons why. The 
second point is that most people are healed by 
finding their cause, admitting their weakness and 
determining to change their mode of thinking 
and living. 

What Say the Doctors? 

Not only is it a good thing to have the patient 
unburden his mind by “fessing” up or finding the 
mental “kink,” hut it also is a good thing to ask 
the patient at the very beginning, not after a few 
sittings of silent treatment, what the doctors say is 
the matter with him. The old consciousness is so 
saturated with the idea that there is something of 
unusual dignity and importance about a doctor’s 
opinion that even though the physicians have not 


438 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


been able to effect a healing, yet the patient likes 
to tell what the doctors have had to say. 

Of course, this is another way of unburdening 
the mind and stepping off of the mental hose. It 
is therefore a good practice to ask the patient' 
what the doctors have to say, but, of course, al¬ 
ways leave them with an idea and the assurance 
that we don’t always believe what we hear. The 
fact is many doctors are wrong in their diagnosis 
and the truth is, according to some reputable 
authorities in the medical profession, that materia 
medica doesn’t know the cause of any disease. 

So after the patient has unburdened his mind 
with the opinion of the learned doctors they fee! 
much better after they found out what the physi¬ 
cians have to say and then are inspired by the 
practitioner’s encouraging inspirations that it 
doesn’t matter whether the doctor is right or not, 
whether it is organic or other disease, whether it 
has been pronounced incurable or hereditary. We 
should not think upon these things but focus our 
mind and our attention upon complete restoration 
of health. 

During the last sixty years there have been 
literally thousands of people who have been healed 
permanently from the most malignant of disease, 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


439 


4 ‘ incurable, ’ 9 organic, hereditary and contagious, 
so that it is no longer a theory or an experiment 
or the exaggerated statements of enthusiastic 
mental healers. 

A Host of Witnesses 

Certain diseases of impaired nutrition, from warts up 
to internal tumors, from scurvy to dropsy, have unques¬ 
tionably been cured by mental influences. This is per¬ 
fectly explicable from what we know of the relation of the 
brain to the blood supply of the body. Through the vaso¬ 
motor brain function it can shut off, or give an extra 
supply of blood to almost any part of the body if the 
proper stimulus is applied, and thus, cure diseases which 
are due to excess or too scanty a supply of blood, to any 
particular part. Imagination, expectation, faith, joy, 
hope, fear, suggestion, may all cure certain diseases. 

In fact the quotation given above is from Doctor 
Clouston, the noted Scotchman, an authority in the 
medical world. 

So we are not overstating or misrepresenting or 
“kidding” ourselves to forget what the doctors 
have diagnosed our cases to he and press forward 
toward our goal of health by claiming and believ¬ 
ing that the infinite source of all power can restore 
to harmonious whole a perfect functioning of all 
of our bodily organs. 


440 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


In order to effect a healing by suggestion or 
Mental Science, it is very necessary either that 
the patient himself or the practitioner turn over 
in his mind what could possibly be one of the 
‘Hour reasons/’ or two or three or all of the four 
reasons which have produced the sickness.* 

Will Evade Sometimes 

If a practitioner, you will very often notice that 
people sometimes seem to evade answering ques¬ 
tions. 

The patient naturally and unconsciously shields him¬ 
self, and, being for the most part unaware of his sub¬ 
conscious processes, is unable to state accurately what he 
has experienced, not to mention what he may think or 
feel. Like the “trackers” of Arabia, whose training from 
birth fits them to be extraordinary detectives, skilled in 
the most subtle observations, the intelligent healer be¬ 
comes able through his training, to track and follow up 
almost instantly the intimations and delicate points that 
escape the attention of the novice. 

Sometimes the patient is doing this to evade you 
or simply is not able to concentrate or to recall 
what might have been one or more of the reasons 
which have produced the sickness. But the care¬ 
ful practitioner, with a little patience, by asking 
questions and continuing his interrogations, will 

*See Psycho-Analysis—Kinks in the Mind. 



HOW HEALER WORKS 


441 


in a very short time be able to put his linger upon 
the cause. 

In my own experience, I believe I could find out 
the trouble or what has caused the sickness gen¬ 
erally in five or ten minutes at the most, if the 
patient will answer questions as I ask. But if you 
should have a patient who consciously or uncon¬ 
sciously evades answering your questions, does 
not answer them directly to the point, or seems to 
try to sidestep the particular thing you want to 
get information about, if you have a knowledge 
of Character Analysis, you sometimes have to 
come to the rescue yourself and make the question 
very decided and pointed. For instance, I had 
as a patient a woman who had been sick for a 
number of years who evaded all questions I asked. 
She had often detained me some length of time 
without apparently my getting anywhere in trac¬ 
ing the cause of her sickness. I finally thought I 
had given her enough time and had spent all of 
the patience I should, so I said to her as emphat¬ 
ically as I could, “Whom are you having trouble 
with in your home?” 

Character Analysis Helps 

Of course I understand Character Analysis and 
I knew my subject was of such a temperament 


442 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


that she could live nowhere without having trouble 
with her associates. She was the kind of a woman 
who not only would have trouble in her home, but 
at her place of business, or wherever she was 
employed or wherever she fellowshipped with 
anyone, so I went to the point in the most direct 
manner and accused her of having trouble with 
someone in her home. I was right. Instantly 
the tears began to run down her cheeks and then 
she told me her story. 

Before this, she had diliberately evaded all the 
questions I had asked her, and tried deliberately 
to sidestep answering, and would have gone away 
from my presence with her sickness still unsolved 
and not knowing what had caused it. 

Therefore, when you meet people who, after you 
have given them plenty of time and used much 
patience, do not answer your questions immedi¬ 
ately, then be firm, if need be emphatic, and ask 
them directly, take them so by surprise that they 
will answer before they think a second time. 

This will require a lot of tact, but in the end 
you will find that nearly all of your patients will 
make of you a confident and counsellor and will be 
more than delighted to co-operate with you in 
your efforts to solve their problems and heal them. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


443 


I mention this merely as an aid to yon should 
the exigency ever arise. Intuition will he your 
guide as a mental healer. You can use the same 
method I do when I submit to intuition to guide 
me to the patient at the right time, or the method 
to use for the different individuals. 

Since a part of my own philosophy is a develop¬ 
ment of the power of intuition, I believe in de¬ 
pending upon this faculty as far as possible and 
to an extent little known or used. 

Practice Helps Some 

A little practice will develop within you that 
something—some call it “the hunch/’ others 
* ‘ intuition,’ ’ which will guide you, even in a trance, 
to the patient you can heal now or who is at the 
psychological point to he healed. This intuition 
will even guide you, if you are so inclined, to the 
person who needs healing but who does not know 
it. 

However, all patients who do not answer your 
questions immediately are not trying to evade 
you. Many really cannot recall what was the 
trouble and may have to take not only a day hut 
a week or more to think it over, and 4 ‘ dig up ’ ’ in 
the subconscious that trouble which has caused 


444 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


this sickness. You as a practitioner will use your 
own good judgment. If you understand character 
analysis and study your patient to differentiate 
between one who is trying to “sidestep ’ 9 you, and 
one who cannot recall, you will soon acquire a 
sharpness of faculty you did not possess before. 

Be Tolerant 

In eliciting from the patient the negative 
thought which may have caused his sickness, be 
sure to have that spirit of toleration of which 
you’re going to help him obtain. Look upon his 
short-comings in the greatest spirit of kindness. 
Always hear in mind that “Let him who is with¬ 
out sin cast the first stone” so when you come to 
that time when you feel you must speak frankly, 
do it without any assumption of self-righteous¬ 
ness. Be kind and modest and simple, but do not 
argue. The “I am better than thou” spirit 
always ruffles and antagonizes the recipient. If 
the patient does not see conditions as you do, 
direct him to the one source where all things can 
be settled the right way, namely direct to the 
Spirit for understanding and persist until he 
catches your viewpoint and understanding. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


445 


Patient Must Be Ready 

If, upon one or two visits, the practitioner finds 
that the patient is not yet ready to acknowledge 
his. short-comings—one or more of the four rea¬ 
sons why people are sick—not willing to put him¬ 
self into the complete care of the practitioner, not 
willing to conform to the necessary instructions 
and rules of mental and physical hygiene, it is just 
as well for the practitioner to dismiss the patient, 
unless he has a feeling that one or more con¬ 
ferences may educate the mind of the patient to 
he, in time, in a receptive attitude for healing. 
The importance of the readiness of the patient 
can not be over-emphasized; in fact, the healer 
can do nothing unless the patient is willing and 
ready. All the practitioner can do under such 
circumstances is to outline reading for the patient 
and carefully instruct him personally in the why 
and how of mental therapeutics. 


Keeping Tabs on ’Em 

Some successful healers take notes as the 
patient tells his troubles and of them make an 
index file. This makes a strong impression on 
certain types of people who are seeking healing, 
for two reasons—first, because they think the 
healer is taking more interest in them than usual 
and second, because, a record being kept of the 
case, the healer is not apt to forget what is the 
matter with them. 

In my own practice, I have learned how im¬ 
portant it is to let some people know that you 
remember their case. Dozens of people in a cam¬ 
paign tell me their troubles. Some of them have 
a string of organic disturbances, mental shocks 
and physical disabilities, as long as the neck of 
a giraffe. However, after they tell me their 
troubles once, and scores of other people tell me 
theirs, even though in the midst of my great rush, 
some expect me at a momenta notice to remem¬ 
ber their specific difficulty and all its details and 
should I be so negligent as not to know what is 
their trouble, I should be very apt to prevent a 
healing. 


446 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


447 


More and more the practitioner becomes a stu¬ 
dent of character analysis and more and more will 
the healer of the future watch the idiosyncrasies, 
the eccentricities and the absurdities in the human 
types who come for healing and will adjust him¬ 
self by the law of accommodation accordingly. 

Not only must he be a good character analyst, 
but he must know how to direct a patients think¬ 
ing in a positive, constructive form of activity and, 
above everything else, he must be sympathetic 
with a patient’s religious beliefs and stimulate his 
faith by every proper means in his power. 

Method of Healing No. 12 
“I Can Heal You, Sir” 

It is not so much what we do as how we do it— 
as we have said. The healer must first have faith 
and believe in himself and the law, in the power 
of God to heaLthe sick and then show this faith 
in a positive, confident manner. 

A half-hearted belief in one’s power to cure the 
case at hand registers upon the sensitive telepathic 
plate of the patient’s mind as a strong counter 
suggestion. The patient catches the inner, silent 
vibration of the healer who lacks confidence, not 
only often neutralizing but preventing a healing. 


448 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 

C.;' 

Geo. C. Pitzer, M. D., the famous suggestive 
therapeutist, gives an illustration of how he heals, 
which every practitioner should bear in mind. 

A Great Method of Healing 

Here I soberly and earnestly consider the case for at 
least three minutes, when my mind is made np and I am 
ready to talk. All this time Mr. Russell is extremely rest¬ 
less, looks to be very much disturbed, and is reaching that 
degree of anxiety that makes him absolutely ready and 
completely receptive for whatever I have to say. While I 
am giving him the attention required, his attention is 
fixed upon me; and there is no better way to attract and 
hold the attention of a patient than to make him know by 
our words and behavior that we are giving him the atten¬ 
tion required. Very suddenly I pick up my chair, move it 
up to his right side and take a seat facing him. I put my 
right hand down on his knee, look him square in the face, 
and say: “Mr. Russell, I am going to tell you something.” 
(Now look at the wide open eyes, the anxious expression 
and trembling limbs.) “I can absolutely cure you; and 
when I cure you I can keep you well. You will enjoy 
better health in the next twenty years of your life than 
you have in the past twenty, and you will live to be a very 
old man.” (See the happy change come over his face.) 
“Well, that is better than I expected to hear,” he quickly 
replies. “It is nevertheless true, sir; I can cure you; and I 
can make you better right away,” I repeat to him. It is 
useless to say that Mr. Russell is pleasantly surprised and 
greatly excited, for his happy frame of mind, and, I might 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


449 


say, the favorable changes in his physical condition also, 
cannot be adequately expressed in words. 

He is pleased, but wants some of the little pills that I 
had given him for the relief of constipation; says they are 
the best pills he ever saw; that one makes a sure dose, and 
that he wants a large box of them for the accommodation of 
some of his neighbors. I give him the pills and he goes 
away happy. The next September he is here again, look¬ 
ing fine, but upon the same errand as before. I examine 
him and send him away happy. Since his first visit to 
my office he has been a regular visitor every September, 
never misses; and as he enters my office in September, 
1899, before removing his hat or taking a seat, he breaks 
out and makes the following speech to me: 

“Well, Pitzer, I am here again.” “I see you are, Mr. 
Russell, and I am glad to see you,” I rejoin. “Pitzer, do 
you know how long I have been coming to see you ?** “No, 
I do not, Mr. Russell,” I reply. “Just twenty years to¬ 
day; and I remember very well the words you said to me 
at my first visit.” “You do! Why, what did I say that 
should impress you so indelibly, Mr. Russell?” “Well, 
sir, after I had told you my story, you examined me for a 
long time, said nothing, then went over to your table and 
sat down and studied awhile, and you looked so serious 
that I was ‘sheered* nearly to death. Then, all at once, 
you picked up your chair, came and seated yourself in 
front of me, slapped your hand down on my knee, looked 
me in the face and said, ‘Mr. Russell, Fm going to tell 
you something.* This fairly startled me, but you went 
right on and said: ‘I can absolutely cure you, and when I 
cure you I can keep you well. You will enjoy better 


450 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


health in the next twenty years of yonr life than yon have 
in the past twenty years, and yon will live to be a very old 
man/ And, now, if yon believe me, Pitzer, that speech has 
been ringing in my ears from one to a dozen times every 
day for twenty years. And here I am, sixty-five years 
old, fat and strong, in as good health as I ever enjoyed in 
my life.” 

So yon see the healer’s attitude and bearing must be 
optimistic, cheerful, poised and authoritative. He cannot 
be a middle-of-the-roader as to his belief in healing the 
patient before him. There must be no confusion or 
unexpected angles. 

Some Healed at Once 

In my public lectures, where I take strangers 
from the audience and heal them, as well as in all 
my class work, I depend upon that little something 
within me—intuition—to guide me to the person 
who is ready for healing. I believe every healer 
in little time can develop this inner sense to guide 
him as mentioned above, so that he will know the 
method of healing to use with the particular pa¬ 
tient, and how he should instruct him to build up 
within the “psychological moment.’’ If you rely 
upon this inner sense or intuition, you will find 
that with many people you can speak with author¬ 
ity, thus: “From this moment your pain is gone,” 
or, “Within two or three days, or two weeks, you 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


451 


will be permanently cured,” or, “You will gradu¬ 
ally but surely recover /’ or, “I can help you, but 
I am not sure that I can cure you, ’ * or whatever is 
needful for the patient at the particular time. 

A second mental state that counts in the cure of disease 
is mental absorption, which takes the patient’s thoughts 
away from self. It is in this way that entertainments of 
all kinds help in the cure of disease, and it is because of 
this that work, regular occupation, is sometimes the best 
medicine. It is through mental absorption that Christian 
Science often helps the sufferers; for it demands of its 
votaries that they become missionaries in the cause, and 
enthusiasm for their propaganda leads them to forget 
self. 


Watch Your Step 

When a practitioner expresses the spirit of 
love and kindness for bis patient be sometimes 
allows a false sympathy to drain bis vitality. This 
can be prevented by never becoming passive, to 
tbe patient, or exhibit a negative condition to 
him. Always keep yourself positive and active in 
your relations to tbe patient, else “you may dis¬ 
cover tbe effects of tbe ‘vampire.* ” There are 
some sick people who like nothing better than to 
drain tbe vitality of tbe healer. This is more 
or less selfishness on their part. Sometimes by 
sapping tbe vitality of tbe practitioner they are 


452 


PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


benefited and strengthened, bnt very often they 
hang more like a leech sacking the life’s blood of 
the sympathetic mind healer instead of doing that 
which they set ont to do. 

This kind of a person is detected by always 
wanting to monopolize the conversation. To tell 
abont his troubles, over and over and over again. 
Usually punctuates his “hard-luck-sick-tale” by 
saying that it is not his fault and others do not 
understand and believe in him. 

If you listen to this kind of a woe-begone tale 
too long, you put yourself in a passive or negative 
state. That is, the patient becomes positive to¬ 
ward you while you should be positive toward him. 
I mean by that, you listen and do not assert your 
personality or your instruction. The patient is 
overriding your prerogative as a teacher, instruc¬ 
tor and healer. He talks instead of you. 

Give such people the benefit of your knowledge 
and skill, but do not allow them to absorb your 
life and vitality, for that does not belong to them. 
So, therefore, do not let go of yourself in the 
direction of “healing”; beware of a certain kind 
of sympathy—or rather, of something miscalled 
sympathy, in letting them monopolize your time. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


453 


Diagnosis Not Necessary 

As we say, we have no objection, in fact, we 
believe it’s a good thing if the patient be asked 
what the doctors think is the matter with him and 
let him unburden his mind that way. It is not 
necessary for the operator or the patient either to 
know the correct diagnosis. The less we know 
about disease, the causes thereof, and the less we 
discuss the symptoms, the better for the patient, 
the better for ourselves, and the sooner the world 
will be rid of sickness. So a diagnosis is not 
necessary. In fact, I personally believe it would 
be a whole lot better if we never got near a diag¬ 
nostician. There are other mental healers who 
have been either trained in materia medica or 
next door to a medical institution who believe that 
it’s a better thing to diagnose. With this we 
cannot agree. 

They “Don’t Know Nothin’ ” 

In the first place, according to the Dean of the 
Vermont Medical College, reported in the journal 
of the American Health Society, the medical pro¬ 
fession does not know the direct cause of disease, 
anyhow. 

As to the cause of disease, physicians seem to know 
very little, and if we say specific cause, they know almost 


454 


PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


nothing; indeed, it is a question that admits of grave 
doubt whether they know the specific cause of any form of 
disease whatever. We speak not of the individuals but of 
doctrines of the schools. 

Second, the more we talk about disease the more 
disease we will have. 

Third, very often a wrong diagnosis is given 
and if it he a malignant disease the suggestion is 
most harmful, very often causing the very sick¬ 
ness the doctor suggests, although the patient 
does not have it. 

Fourth, it doesn’t matter anyway what disease 
the person may have. Most of our disease is in 
our minds and we have shown by going through 
the four reasons why how the source of these 
diseases may be located. We are, therefore, not 
interested in what the disease is, how long a time 
it has run and what course we may be expected 
to pursue, so much as we should be interested in 
the cause of our inharmony and the way health 
may be restored. 

Fifth, it is, therefore, a shorter cut to health by 
thinking health and suggesting health and treat¬ 
ing for health than to think sickness, suggest sick¬ 
ness and treat for sickness. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


455 


Watch the “Hunch” 

If the practitioner develops the spirit of a 
sympathetic listener, tender father confessor, he 
will notice a little monitor within him. Some call 
it intuition—others call it a “hunch”—which will 
direct him in not only the questions he shall ask 
to elicit from the patient the necessary confes¬ 
sion of the negative thinking which has caused his 
sickness, but also this little monitor will direct the 
healer to tell the patient the particular thing he 
needs for his specific case. 

At the age of 28,1 did not know that I had such 
a thing as a “hunch .’ 9 After I had discovered this 
myself, I began to develop until now nearly every¬ 
thing I do in a business and professional way is 
by “feeling”—hunch. 

Please observe that in this book I am giving 
you methods employed both by others and by my¬ 
self. In my public lectures I take strangers from 
the audience and demonstrate the power of mind 
over the body by healing them in front of the great 
crowd. When you have, two to five thousand 
people watching, among whom there are bound to 
be hundreds of skeptics and severe critics, I 
seldom attempt a healing, whether it be a case of 
deafness, blindness, or what-not, unless I have a 


456 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


hunch that I can heal that particular person. That 
means, of course, that the patient has either 
reached the psychological frame of mind to he 
healed or has already by his own effort stirred up 
his healing power within him—one way or 
another. x 

In all of my classes I follow the hunch. I am 
not alone in this, for Elizabeth Severn, in Psycho- 
Therapy, says: 


The Ladies Agree 

Since a part of my own philosophy is a development of 
the power of intuition, I believe in depending upon this 
faculty as far as possible and to an extent little known. It 
is of the greatest service in reading character and still 
more so in enabling one to be alive to the needs of a 
patient. It is not exclusively a feminine quality, either, 
but may be developed in any one who will take the time 
and trouble. The action of the subconsciousness becomes 
so rapid and acute that the factors of any observation are 
quickly reduced to accurate conclusions, which flash up 
into the consciousness immediately and spontaneously. It 
is in diagnosis that this psychic faculty is especially valu¬ 
able, and if the thought radiations known as the human 
aura can be sensed it is of great assistance. There are 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


457 


some instances where purely clairvoyant diagnosis is re¬ 
markably successful, but equally often it is uncertain and 
therefore unsatisfactory. And since an unusual degree of 
penetration can be developed out of ordinary conditions 
with proper training and effort, I consider the latter much 
more desirable. 


Healing Ourselves and Others—Education 
Up to the Healer 

As Dr. Lewellys F. Barker says: 

More than half the ills of one class of nervous patients 
depend upon a loss of confidence in their own ability, upon 
a sense of past failure and of future impotency. They have 
tried to do things outside their powers, and, having failed, 
have become convinced that they cannot in any way be 
efficient. Their minds are concentrated upon their failures 
and their disabilities instead of upon their successes. 

So it is not only the Psychology of getting the 
patient to have faith in his physician, hut there is 
another great task for the mental therapeutist, 
and that is to re-educate the patient so that he will 
believe in himself. This will with many patients 
take some little time. In order to do this, the 
practitioner must be, of course, well grounded in 
the laws of healing. He should grow day by day 
in his mentality as well as in his sympathy and 
experience, for the old saying that you must know 
more than a dog to teach him tricks, is surely true 
here. 

Perhaps there is no more important part of 
mind healing than that the practitioner can by 
personality, persuasion and teaching, re-educate 


458 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


459 


the patient to have faith in the healer, faith in 
himself and faith in God. For, as Elizabeth Sev¬ 
ern has well said: 

Therapeutic Conversation 

The next important step in treatment after diagnosis 
is what I call a therapeutic conversation. The diagnosis 
may be accomplished during the course of it, as it natu¬ 
rally centers around the fact that the patient has come to 
discuss his ailments, but other topics need not necessarily 
be excluded, as these frequently allow of more spontaneity 
and hence, for the healer, furnish better opportunities. 

In all of my healing classes we relax from time 
to time and talk abont things, not only relative to 
healing bnt foreign to healing. Very few minds 
can remain fixed upon one subject for any length 
of time. By overdoing this, by straining in our 
effort to concentrate or by over-stress, we back¬ 
fire and get little or no results. 

Along this line, Hr. Severn continues: 

One who is clever in dealing with and moulding human 
minds can make of this an occasion of great helpfulness in 
changing the character of the patient’s conscious thinking. 
Apparently impersonal results may be so charged with 
meaning that each one will be as a shaft to drive home a 
needed lesson. Frankness and corrective instruction are the 
natural order of the situation, giving scope for touches 
here and there to replace false ideas and inculcate more 
wholesome habits of thought. 


460 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


The primary object of such conversations is the educa¬ 
tion of the objective mind of the patient. If he can be 
taught to abandon his old ways of suggesting the wrong 
things to his subconsciousness all the time, if he is ready 
to listen to reason and argument, he will at least no longer 
be placing obstacles in the way of the healer, and will 
arrive sooner where self-help is possible. As he constantly 
reveals the deficiencies of his mental habits they must be 
met with unfailing courage and optimism by the healer. 
The patient must be stimulated or soothed, encouraged or 
restrained, guided and trained according to his nature. 
A persistent habit of cheerful, vigorous thought can be 
inculcated that will help to hold him steady through the 
ups and downs of his progress toward health. If the 
healer is keen and concentrated, he can through all of 
this “indirect direction” often give as efficacious a treat¬ 
ment as in any other way.—Psycho-Therapy. 

A Big Job for Healer 

So the practitioner should definitely ascertain 
the fundamental facts that correlates, forms the 
methods and systems in mind healing. Even the 
Master himself could not heal without proper con¬ 
ditions. For, did he not say that he could not do 
many wonderful things among people of his own 
village because of their unbelief. 

The one thing, therefore, with a practitioner, is 
to be able to bolster up this belief to induce such a 
condition in the minds of the patients. Indeed, it 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


461 


might be said that the whole art of mental healing 
consists of knowing how best to control the pa¬ 
tient’s mind in this direction. Of course, there 
are many ways of doing this, as there are mental 
healers. The big thing, therefore, is that each 
healer will be so grounded in the principles of 
healing and the faith in himself and God that he 
can induce the proper mental attitude in the minds 
of his patients. 

All that is required in order to practice success¬ 
fully is to find out the best conditions under which 
the subjective mind of each person may be reached 
and then in a proper manner present ^suitable 
ideas as to mind—thoughts that will result in the 
correction of all abnormal conditions and in effect¬ 
ing the desired reliefs so that a cure will spring 
from our efforts. 

The following from “ Suggestion ’ 9 is from the 
pen of Geo. C. Pitzer, M. D.: 

We have only to keep in mind these facts: We have two 
minds—an objective mind and a subjective mind; that the 
subjective mind has absolute control over all the sensations 
and functions of our bodies; and that this subjective mind 
is constantly amenable to the power of suggestion by the 
objective mind of the patient himself, or that of another. 
These facts being established, we can readily understand 
how cures are performed by suggestion. We simply fix 


462 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the attention of the patient, suggest the wished-for changes 
and conditions, and the subjective mind, having full con¬ 
trol, executes our orders, and the required results are 
realized. 

It must be remembered, however, that in order to suc¬ 
ceed with this method of cure the proper conditions must 
obtain in every case. The patient must be in a receptive 
condition ;* must be ready to accept everything we say as 
absolutely true, and antagonize us in nothing. Under these 
conditions and none other, can we expect perfect success 
with suggestion. 

What the Healer Does 

Therefore, the healer should enlighten his pa¬ 
tient by frequent conferences and with a different 
talk, systematically arranged each time a treat¬ 
ment is given. 

Patient and the Law 

So the best results always are obtained when 
the patient is in complete accord with the funda¬ 
mental concept of the healing—I believe in Mental 
Science Psychology. In fact, it may be difficult, 
even impossible to heal one who does not approve 
of or who is not in harmony or accord with the 
healing. 

I have, nevertheless, known many who not only 
never gave a thought to the question how the mind 

*See “What the Patient Has to Do” elsewhere in this Book. 



HOW HEALER WORKS 


463 


heals but who presented more or less opposition to 
the healing and yet had wonderful demonstrations. 

That is easily understood. Although such per¬ 
sons have been either opposed or neutral to mental 
healing, when the practitioner begins to decant 
upon the wonders of Mental Science, there comes a 
little relaxation in the mind of the skeptic. This 
relaxation makes it possible for the mind to open 
to the influx of the spirit which by recharging the 
patient makes him well. 

Therefore, I say, the best results can be^oR 
tained if the patient is in harmony. As a healer, 
however, I ought not to refrain from trying to 
heal people, even though they appear not yet edu¬ 
cated to the psychological point of complete sur¬ 
render to healing. You may quite by chance hit 
upon something which will relax the mind and 
open it so that the healing can take place. Or it 
may be that you will find a series of conferences 
and lessons necessary before the patient has 
reached the psychological moment for healing. In 
any wise, be not discouraged, because the wonders 
of God are great and the more skeptical the 
patient, the more opposition he manifests, the 
more suddenly he may be taken, you might say, 


464 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


the more complete his relaxation when the influx 
of the spirit actually comes. 

We have conducted many wonderful healings 
by absent treatment—silent treatment—for people 
who are skeptical or even revolt against healing. 

In the silence room where we heal people ab¬ 
sently all over the world, we hold people in thought 
whose friends have sent in for silent treatment, 
and they have been healed. The same thing hap¬ 
pens to those good skeptics as it does for the one 
who is present at the healing. There comes a time 
when the skeptical mind is relaxed and, no longer 
being on the defensive, lets go; the mind opens, the 
thought which we have been sending to him 
reaches the subconscious mind and the influx of 
the spirit instantly comes and effects the healing. 

Can Be Too Spiritual 

Many practitioners, especially if they use the 
“spiritual” or the silent treatment method—that 
is, sitting in the same room with the patient and 
treating him silently or treating him at a distance, 
proceed from the very beginning by having the 
patient sit in a comfortable position, relax, give 
himself over entirely to the healer, while the latter 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


465 


proceeds to hold silent thoughts for the patient’s 
health. 

I say many practitioners without much educa¬ 
tion or explanation how the healing is effected do 
this. They content themselves with the simple 
statement, “God does the healing; all is mind; it 
is the spirit that healeth , 9 9 etc. 

After these practitioners have given a few sit¬ 
tings of silent treatment they take up the explana¬ 
tion as best they know how. This I think is put¬ 
ting the cart before the horse. In my extended 
experience I have found that half the battle is 
finding out the cause, locating the kink—one or 
more of the four reasons why. 

One or more of these “kinks” may be likened 
to a kink in a hose. When the kink is unkinked the 
water flows freely. When the kink is out of the 
mind, health thoughts, good thoughts, universal 
energy, creative principle, the God spirit, have a 
chance to flow through the individual. 

This “kink” may act as a compression in the 
mind, as when a garden hose has been stepped on 
so that the water cannot freely flow. Our “kink” 
in the mind acts as a compression so that the spirit 
of health, happiness and success and abundance 
cannot flow into us. Neither do we send it out. 


466 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


One of the very first and most essential prin¬ 
ciples of life is that of giving out what we want 
to keep. We give out love to keep it and we give 
the spirit of friendship in order to have friends. 
If this kink has made a compression in the mind, 
thus causing sickness, we continue because of this 
compression, to keep within the subconscious mind 
this suppressed thought and the compression pre¬ 
vents the escape or giving out of the sickness that 
is within. When we find out one or more of the 
four reasons it is like releasing the gardenhose 
from its kink. The compression is taken away, 
out goes the suppressed obsession and in flows 
the healing spirit of the Infinite. 

Half the Battle 

So when we are able to locate the “kink” and 
step off of the mental hose we have just about won 
the battle for health if we follow it up with one or 
more of the various methods of healing. 

So you see first to talk to the patient and ask 
him what has produced his sickness—here run¬ 
ning through and enumerating the various sections 
under the “Four Reasons Why” in “Kinks in 
the Mind” is of wonderful aid in effecting a cure. 
We most heartily recommend, therefore, that the 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


467 


patient first be asked what is tbe trouble, so as to 
locate tbe kink before giving any kind of treat¬ 
ment. When we get bim to step oft of tbe mental 
bose, tbe patient is inspired for mental healing as 
at no other time, for whether we admit it or not, 
all of ns are more or less inquisitive and want to 
know “the reason why.” One or more of the four 
reasons why people are sick are responsible and 
will be understood and appreciated by nearly 
every patient. 

Again, there is great virtue in mental healing 
by way of unburdening the mind. A sympathetic 
person to whom to tell the troubles or experiences 
which have caused the sickness, especially if it be 
a suppressed thought as mentioned under the third 
reason why people are sick, is often a downright 
blessing. 

Most patients have an idea that their sup¬ 
pressed thoughts are trivial to the outsider 
though to them they are most tragic. They prob¬ 
ably have kept this thought in their minds for 
years and years. Not daring to mention it to 
others for fear they would be ridiculed, but when 
they have a sympathetic listener and one who un¬ 
derstands, a healing is very often spontaneous. 


468 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


I have seen scores of people healed, often in¬ 
stantly, when they “fess up” to either the sup¬ 
pressed idea which may seem foolish to others or 
“fess up” to any of the other four reasons why. 

That this method is better than the old way of 
treating silently many times first and giving ex¬ 
planations afterwards has been proved at least, in 
my experience, for over 90 per cent of those who 
take my healing classes report demonstrations. 

Know Your Patient 

Some healers make much use of the idea of God, 
of the Omnipotence of God or the Omnipresence 
of God. There are those who emphasize the divine 
while others refer only to Christ or to the terms 
Christ-like and Christ spirit. This phraseology is 
variously employed by metaphysical healers. 

The practitioner should study his patient and 
always appeal to his training, education, worldly 
advantages, modes, temperament, religious convic¬ 
tion or make-up. Study the patient’s likes and 
dislikes and make your appeal accordingly. If 
love, omnipotence, divine Christ, etc., do not in 
your judgment suit the case, then use nature, 
evolution, the power within, life more abundantly 
and explain the cell theory found in “Chemistry 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


469 


of Emotion” in “Applied Psychology and Scien¬ 
tific Living” and in “Psychology of Emotion,” 
other volumes of this series. 

Have all of these at your finger tips so you will 
be able to face any emergency and meet skillfully 
the various peculiarities and temperaments of 
your patients. 


Spiritual Healing 

To tell a person lie will be healed when he 
reaches a spiritual plane or when he comes into a 
God consciousness is to discourage many a good 
seeker after health and truth, for in many cases all 
the person needs perhaps is to stop overeating 
and indulging in irregular habits. Remembering 
that our physical bodies react upon the mind just 
as mental disturbances react upon the body, it is 
easy to see how a man who has a sick headache 
or a sluggish liver or clogged bowels will in such 
a condition have a long way to travel before he 
reaches the spiritual plane. On the other hand, 
if the subject eliminates or corrects these bad 
habits, this correction is the very first step toward 
the spiritual. 

In other words, if a man be sick because of 
lack of fresh air, fresh water or exercise, or from 
overeating, let him first get into harmony with 
the natural laws, to correct these bad habits, to 
harmonize himself with the material, and be 
healed; then he is on the highway to become spiri¬ 
tual. In other words, if a man corrects his physi¬ 
cal irregularities and becomes healed, he is a 


470 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


471 


better subject for spiritual development than the 
food glutton, the lazy mass of human flesh, the 
time killer or the drone. 

A Good Way 

George C. Pitzer, in “Therapeutic Suggestion 
Applied/ ’ meets the situation in a most splendid 
manner. Having talked to his patient about the 
eternal life spirit in each individual and the patient 
having acknowledged there is some indestructible 
something within him which some call spirit, 
others mind and again others soul, Pitzer con¬ 
tinues thus: 

"Then you believe you have a soul,” I said to him. "Yes, 
sir; I believe I have a soul,” he responds. "Well, sir,” I 
say to him, "you realize that you have a soul and it is 
true. Not that our treatment is mixed up with any re¬ 
ligious belief or sectarian tenet, for it is not; but it is a 
scientific fact that we have a mind, a body and a soul. 
Now, with what you call your mind, you can order your 
arm to straighten out and it will at once do so; with this 
mind you can move any voluntary muscle of your body, 
but you cannot, with this mind, make the heart stop beat¬ 
ing. While your business mind can move your arm, it is 
the soul, the soul mind, we call it, that moves and controls 
your heart and all the silent functions of your body, such 
as digestion, nutrition, etc. Now, this soul mind can be 
influenced by suggestion; that is, we can talk to this soul 
mind in plain words, just like we talk to any person, and 


472 PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


it will recognize what we say and give ns any condition of 
body or mind that may be within the bounds of possibility 
for us to enjoy. Remember, this soul mind absolutely con¬ 
trols our bodily conditions, and this being so, we can with 
confidence appeal to it for what we want, especially when 
we also know that it can and will respond to our requests. 
It is upon this principle that we engage to give you full 
control of every member of your body, and make you keep 
your head still, wink your eyes regularly, and quit sniffing 
your nose.” 

The Great Idea of God 

When your patient gets the new conception of 
God he will then understand that suffering and 
sickness is not sent because of the wrath of God 
or to punish us for the sins of Adam. Neither is 
it a necessity, as so many good people have been 
taught to believe, but it is a condition brought 
about through ignorance, wrong modes of living, 
wrong channels of thought, irregular conformity 
to nature’s laws which one may learn so as to meet 
life to avoid illness altogether. 

When this conception of God is understood then 
we see that the problem of disease is but one of 
the general problems of life, depending for its so¬ 
lution upon a changed mental attitude, and a 
changed mode of living which once was considered 
a curse but which now may be a blessing. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


473 


If the practitioner decides that his patient is of 
a religions turn of mind or has been raised in 
orthodoxy, the following Scriptures may be help¬ 
fully used when talking to such a patient. It may 
be well to have these written out in a little book, 
so that the healer can refer to them at once, or 
better, committing them to memory: 

Strength 

I will love thee, 0 Lord, my strength. 

The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; 
my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, 
and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Psalms 
18: 1-2. 

The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of 
the God of Jacob defend thee; 

Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee 
out of Zion. Psalms 20: 1-2. 

But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; he is 
their strength in the time of trouble. Psalms 37: 39. 

The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he 
shall be blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver 
him unto the will of his enemies. 

The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of lapgtrtsfi- 
ing; thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. Psalms 
41: 2-3. 

Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 
stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. 

Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord JE¬ 
HOVAH is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26: 3-4. 


474 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Hast thou not known? has thou not heard, that the 
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the 
earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching 
of his understanding. 

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no 
might he increaseth strength. 

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young 
men shall utterly fail; but they that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with 
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and 
they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah, 40: 28-31. 

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that 
hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Job 17:9. 

The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord 
is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded him¬ 
self ; the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. 
Psalms 93:1. 

Honour and majesty are before him; strength and 
beauty are in his sanctuary. Psalms 96 :6. 

The Lord is my strength and son, and is become my sal¬ 
vation. Psalms 118 :14. 

Then there came again and touched me one like the 
appearance of a man and he strengthened me. And said, 
0 man greatly beloved; fear not; peace be unto thee; be 
strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, 
I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak; for thou 
hast strengthened me. Daniel 10: 18-19, 

In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and 
strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. Psalms 138-3. 

I can do all things through Christ which strengthened 
me. Phil. 4:13. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


475 


Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose 
heart are the ways of them. Who, passing through the 
valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the 
pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of 
them in Zion appeareth before God. Psalms 84: 5-7. 

Bless the Lord, 0 my soul; and all that is within me, 
bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget 
not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; 
who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from 
destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and 
tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good 
things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 
Psalm 103: 1-5. 


Peace 

The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord 
will bless his people with peace. Psalms 29: 11. 

And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the 
effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. 
Isaiah 32: 17. 

And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and 
in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isa. 32: 18. 

When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the 
city shall be low in a low place. Isaiah 32:19. 

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue 
it. Psalms 34: 14. 

But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight 
themselves in the abundance of peace. Psalms 37: 11. 

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the 
«nd of that man is peace. Psalms 37: 37. 

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with 
the finest of the wheat. Psalms 147: 14. 


476 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the 
which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. 
Col. 3: 15. 

And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie 
down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will rid 
evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go 
through the land. Lev. 26: 6. 

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but 
righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For 
he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to 
God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after 
the things which make for peace, and things. wherewith 
one may edify another. Romans 14: 17-19. 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not 
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart 
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. St. John 14: 27. 

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye 
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: 
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. St. John 
16: 33. 

Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing 
shall offend them. Psalms 119: 165. 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 
Phil. 4: 7. 

Happy is the man that walketh not in the counsel of 
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinner, nor sitteth 
in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law 
of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and 
night. Psalms 1: 1-2. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


477 


Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the 
way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Happy are all 
they that put their trust in him. Psalms 2 : 12. 

Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin 
is covered. Happy is the man unto whom the Lord im- 
puteth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 
Psalms 32: 1-2. 

Happy are they that dwell in thy house; they will be 
still praising thee. Selah. Happy is the man whose 
strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. 
Psalms 84: 4-5. 

Happy are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth 
righteousness at all times. Psalms 106: 3. 

Happy are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the 
law of the Lord. 

Happy are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek 
him with the whole heart. Psalms 119: 1-2. 

Happy is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh 
in his ways. Psalms 128 : 1. 

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
whose hope is in the Lord his God. Psalms 146: 5. 

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. 
St. John 13: 17. 

He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good; and 
whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Proverbs 16: 20. 

How, therefore hearken unto me, 0 ye children: for 
blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and 
be wise, and refuse it not. Happy is the man that heareth 
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my 
doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain 
favour of the Lord. Proverbs 8: 32-35. 


478 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by 
sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15: 13. 

All the days of the afflicted are evil; but he that is of a 
merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15: 15. 

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that 
getteth understanding. Proverbs 3 : 13. 

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken 
spirit drieth the bones. Proverbs 17 : 22. 

Happy is that people, that is in such a case; yea, happy 
is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalms 144: 15. 

Happy are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. Happy are they that mourn: for they shall be 
comforted. Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the 
earth. Happy are they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness for they shall be filled. Happy are the merci¬ 
ful, for they shall obtain mercy. Happy are the pure in 
heart; for they shall see God. Happy are the peacemakers, 
for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5: 
3-9. 

Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have 
heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of 
the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender 
mercy. James 5: 11. 

Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that 
keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29: 18. 

Happy are they that do his commandments, that they 
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
the gates of the city. Eevelations 22: 14. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


479 


Special Gifts by the Spirit 

1. Cor. 12: 7-11. 

Each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit tr 
profit withal. 

To one is given the word of wisdom. 

To another is given the word of knowledge. 

To another, faith. 

To another, gifts of healing. 

To another, workings of powers. 

To another, discerning of spirits. 

To another, different kinds of tongues. 

To another, the interpretation of tongues. 

Proper Environment 

And there should be proper environment for 
effectual healing. The healer should be very care¬ 
ful to caution the patient to say nothing about 
mental treatment, thus to avoid antagonism or 
adverse suggestions from external sources. When 
friends or others say, “There’s nothing to this, 
you are running after a fad; one day you will wake 
up; it will do you no good,” and puncture your 
breastplate of faith by shooting it full of doubt 
it may provoke a relapse. 

Should averse criticism begin to make an im¬ 
pression upon your feelings for faith, most vigor¬ 
ous auto-suggestion should immediately be 
undertaken. 


480 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Another most important part of mental healing 
is cheerfulness in the patient and to install cheer¬ 
fulness in the patient, the healer must be cheerful 
and optimistic. But besides that, the healer’s 
office or Healing Room should he one that is not 
only spick and span in neatness, hut very pleasant 
in its atmosphere. There should be nothing left 
undone to make the practitioner’s reception room 
or healing quarters as cheerful and pleasant as 
possible. 

And should the practitioner be obliged to visit 
patients at home, one of the first things he should 
see to is that the sickroom be made pleasant and 
cheerful and beautiful. 

Celsus (lib. iii., cap. 6) says: “It is the mark 
of a skilled practitioner to sit awhile by the bed¬ 
side with a blithe countenance.” 

Solomon says (Proverbs XVII., 22): “A merry 
heart doeth good like a medicine.” 

A great physician himself, writing words of help 
to his profession, has said: 

I wonder if physicians as a rule have really any con¬ 
ception of the power of the face over the patient; how 
closely it is watched, and more deduced from the aspect 
and manner than from the words. 

Some have the faculty, as we say, instinctively (which 
simply means by the action of the unconscious mind), of 


HOW HEALEE WORKS 


481 


adapting themselves in voice, manner, and expression to 
the needs of the patient before them, so that these shall 
produce their highest therapeutic effects; and there can he 
no doubt that what is thus instinctive is at once more 
natural and more effective than what is consciously as¬ 
sumed. It is, undoubtedly, this natural gift that is the 
great secret of success. 

Remember, that if you have any kind of physical 
defect, whether you lack personality or magne¬ 
tism, a cheerful countenance or gloomy, that this 
can all be overcome by applying the laws of 
psychology.* 

*For an explanation and formula for how to develop personal¬ 
ity, personal magnetism and personal charm, see Applied Psy¬ 
chology and Scientific Living, Chapter XII. 



Be Optimistic 

Also we should remember it well: Discouraging 
remarks depress sick people, and render cures 
more tedious; and in violent cases of sickness we 
may, even by our deportment and expressions of 
despair, render cures impossible. We also know 
that we can, by encouraging words, hopeful be¬ 
havior and the presentation of cheerful, happy 
thoughts, animate, invigorate and revive sick peo¬ 
ple, and greatly enhance their chances for relief 
and cure. Suggestion does it all. Surely sugges¬ 
tion controls the world. It is the coming method 
for the correction of all habits and the prevention 
of crime. The time is not far distant when it 
will be the prevailing method of practice in all 
reformatory institutions. Heaven speed the day! 

Cassiodorus (^Ep., ,> lib. i) says: “To give joy 
to the sick is natural healing; for once make your 
patient cheerful, and his cure is accomplished.’ ’ 

Why Some Are Healed 

We sometimes wonder why certain healings are 
instantaneous, why some take a long time, and 
why others are never healed. We have partially 


482 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


483 


answered this in another part of this series. It’s 
hard to tell why some are healed and some are not. 
It may be the fanlt of the healer, it may he the 
fanlt of the patient—usually the patient. Or it 
may he that the patient is surrounded by wrong 
vibrations, has too many negative conditions in his 
environment. But we may rest assured that when¬ 
ever he gets into harmony with the law for health, 
the cure will he effected. So, inasmuch as there 
is no ultimate reason that would reach all people, 
explaining why they are not healed, it is safe to 
recommend to patients not to give up. While 
there is life, there’s hope. Keep everlastingly at 
it. Remember repetition. Bear in mind that it is 
not the first blow of the sledge hammer on the 
rock that breaks it. It is the continued, repeated 
poundings which finally jar the rock into a thou¬ 
sand hits. Others have been healed; so can you. 

Do not expect to break up a series of bad habits 
in one treatment. Perseverance and confidence 
on the operator’s part are very essential. 

It is the patient’s own forces within that effect 
the cure. This power within may be stimulated by 
the healer, by the methods employed, by writing, 
by the silence, by hearing others talk about their 


484 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


wonderful cures, by encouragement, proper eating, 
right breathing, exercise, sunshine, faith. 

Maybe you are neglecting some of the hygienic 
laws of life. 

Right Habits of Living 

Says one great healer: 

But even Psychic Healing will not, and cannot, effect 
a permanent cure, unless the patient will change his or 
her habits of living, and will endeavor to live in accord¬ 
ance with Nature’s laws. 

So therefore, again and again, do we urge the healer to 
acquaint his patient with these natural laws of the body— 
and while giving the healing treatments he should en¬ 
deavor to “work in” advice and instruction regarding the 
natural laws of the body, so that when the patient is healed 
he will live in such a manner as to promote health, and to 
hold the ground he has gained, and not slip back again. 

Therefore, you see, the healer should be more 
than a healer. He should be an instructor and a 
teacher of the people. As one has said, in this 
way he makes his calling a divine and sacred one 
instead of a mere tinkerer of bodies. 

Getting the Mind Ready for Healing 

After furnishing an explanation of the Power 
of Mind over the body in its various ramifications 
and of the Four Reasons Why People Are Sick 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


485 


and educating the patient to a knowledge of and 
belief in How the Mind Heals and the various 
methods which may be used, the practitioner 
should not fail to give some good, common-sense 
instruction as to diet, hygiene, breathing, sleep, 
habits and exercise. 

If a person has sick headaches because of over¬ 
eating or constipation, it’s rather an uphill job 
for the mind to overcome. We hesitate to put 
limitations upon what the mind can do, but over¬ 
taxing mental energy which can be used to far bet¬ 
ter advantage is folly. Therefore, about the first 
thing to do is to give a course of instruction— 
educating the patient—in diet, hygiene, breath¬ 
ing, sleep, exercise and normal habits. A full 
outline of all of these is given in “Practical Psy¬ 
chology and Sex Life”; also in our twenty-five 
cent pamphlets, * ‘What to Eat,” “The Silence— 
What It Is and How to Use It.” 

Conform to Hygienic Laws 

Often all the patient needs is a re-education 
along these lines of right living. We ought not 
to expect God to do the thing that we can do 
ourselves. It is only after we have done all that 
we should do from a hygienic standpoint that it is 


486 


PSYCHOLOGY OB’ HEALING 


time to call upon God, and that he will then hear 
us and answer our prayer sooner than we think is 
very apparent. 

The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth 
them ont of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto 
them that are of a broken heart and sooth such as be of a 
contrite spirit.—Psalms 34: 17-18. 

If this course of Psychology differs from the 
ordinary metaphysical course in any particular it 
is in this: that we believe the best way to have 
God help us is to help ourselves; that there are 
certain natural laws to which we must conform 
and we help God to help us by keeping these phys¬ 
ical laws. In other words, by obeying the laws of 
health we help God to help Nature to help us. 

Exercise, breathing, bathing, fresh air, are all 
important things to be observed. This the prac¬ 
titioner must strictly enjoin upon the patient. It 
is not wise, however, to exercise when one is tired. 
Above everything else, sleep is a needed some¬ 
thing that nature insists upon, and no practitioner 
can hope to be successful if the patient’s life is 
worn out and fagged out by work. If the system 
craves sleep it must have it. If the body demands 
rest, it must rest. Without a sufficient degree of 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


487 


rest the brain becomes overworked, complications 
set in and, of course, the mind cannot be expected 
to heal. 

It is as inconsistent to think that the mind can 
heal the body when the body is worn ont and 
fatigued as it is to think that the body can be 
kept alive without eating or breathing. Therefore, 
insist upon your patient’s having rest and sleep. 

Health and Rest 

We observe elsewhere that eyestrain is un¬ 
doubtedly the cause of much epilepsy (and this 
can be cured) and headaches, vertigo, irritability, 
neurasthenia, nervous dyspepsia, car-sickness, 
sea sickness, twitchings, restlessness, irritability, 
temper, etc. 

To help correct these conditions we should be 
willing to adapt ourselves, not only in our think¬ 
ing about mind being able to heal diseases but in 
relieving the physical strain by plenty of rest, 
free from physical nervous taxation, enough sleep 
and eye exercises. 

Every person should take at least three min¬ 
utes’ exercises of the eyes each day as outlined in 
Practical Psychology and Sex Life. 


488 PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


It is not wise to dwell upon the whys and where¬ 
fores of the cause and the things which bring sick¬ 
ness into our lives, but we may divert the atten¬ 
tion of the extreme metaphysician who thinks that 
all healing can he done by mind without conform¬ 
ing to natural physical laws. 

Let the Healer Use the Big Stick 

The healer should always impress upon the 
patient and demand of him that he live up to a 
program consistent with the purposes of the treat¬ 
ment, for little real good can spring from sugges¬ 
tive and mental treatments when the individual 
lives in a manner to repudiate or neutralize their 
efficacy. 

Eighteen out of twenty cases of sickness are 
due to wrong eating. The patient should always 
be willing to eat right, exercise, take deep breath¬ 
ing, get plenty of sunshine, and think right. 

A man who had taken several of my classes 
asked me how to cure constipation. It is impos¬ 
sible for a person to be constipated if he lives on 
raw diet as we recommend. If one will drink 
a quart or more of warm water in the morning 
before taking the juice from three or four oranges, 
will eliminate the rest of the usual hearty break- 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


489 


fast, exercise the muscles of the abdomen and take 
deep breathing, he cannot be constipated. 

When this man wanted to be cnred of constipa¬ 
tion I asked him what he was eating. Notice his 
breakfast: Beef steak, two helpings of potatoes, 
doughnuts, coffee and “a stack’’ of cakes. 

Ordinarily you can give a suggestion to cure 
constipation, but if that malady is caused by over¬ 
eating, stuffing the alimentary tract, clogging the 
whole eliminative system, the mind will have to 
work some to get the gourmand back to normal. 

Therefore, one of the things that the practi¬ 
tioner must sedulously watch is the carelessness of 
his patients in not living up to a four-fold har¬ 
mony of the laws of eating, exercising, breathing 
and control of emotional states. 

Before closing this section, it is most essential 
that the practitioner take a little time to analyze 
himself and see what may be personal habits which 
are driving patients from him instead of attracting 
patients to him. 

How to Leave the Patient 

Always leave the patient with words of encour¬ 
agement and hope, calculated to impress upon him 
the importance of keeping before him right mental 


490 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


images and affirmations of health, and of avoiding 
all fear and worry. 

If magnetic treatment has been employed, it is 
always well to touch the patient, generally by a 
few downward strokes at the end of the treatment. 
If suggestion has been used, the passing of the 
hand back and forth at the conclusion will suffice. 
This leaves him in a poised, calm and hopeful 
frame of mind. Electrical vibrations from the 
hands of the practitioner will accomplish the same 
purpose by leaving a glow not only about the 
afflicted place, but throughout the body. 

It is better to request your patients to say 
nothing to anybody about treatment they are re¬ 
ceiving, but to reply to people who inquire after 
their health, “I am well” or “I am well as usual” 
or “I am feeling much better, fine as a fiddle,” or 
“lama new person. ’ ’ 

It is obvious that if someone comes along and 
says to a person who is just realizing the con¬ 
sciousness of mental healing, “I haven’t a bit of 
faith in this stuff,” it may undermine your faith, 
the untoward remark may act as a strong counter 
suggestion and prevent the healing. 

As a rule the best results are obtained when a 
patient is wholly en rapport with the healer. 


HOW HEALER WORKS 


491 


Final Word to the Practitioner 

Personal Neatness and Cleanliness —One would 
think it was hardly necessary to mention the fact 
that a practitioner should he scrupulously clean 
in person and clothes, and yet I have met many 
and many talented, efficient professional men who 
are driving thousands of dollars of business away 
from them each year because of their lack of per¬ 
sonal neatness and cleanliness. Not only is it 
true with mental practitioners, but this is true 
with many in the medical and dental professions, 
as well as others. 


Smoking 

If a man smokes, and carries pipes and cigars 
in clothes that have absorbed smoke in smoking 
rooms, cafes, clubs—of course, he does not con¬ 
sider this offensive to himself, but it is most offen¬ 
sive to some people. 

Most successful professional men like to take 
their little home brew on the side, and face a 
patient with a breath that could knock over a Mis¬ 
souri mule, and then wonder why the patient goes 
to some other man. 


492 PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


Teeth 

Others are very careless about the care of their 
teeth. If there is any breath in the world that is 
enough to down the smell of a skunk, it is the 
breath of the one who has decayed teeth and an 
unclean mouth. 

If you are not successful, spruce up in your 
clothes and your personal tidiness. Get the smell 
of offensive habits out of your clothes. See that 
there is no moonshine or tobacco odor, or decayed 
teeth breaths that befoul your office and drive 
away your patients. 


PART V 


MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS 
FOR HEALER AND PATIENT 

LENGTH OF TIME FOR HEALING 

With Some Longer Than Others 

When we have discovered one or more of the 
four reasons why people are sick as mentioned 
elsewhere, the healing may be instantaneous, but 
in other cases it may be prolonged, according to 
the temperament of the individual, the character 
of the disease, the faith of the patient and the 
make-up of the practitioner. 

In the case of some patients improvement will 
be noticed the first day. With others it may take 
a month, or three months before much improve¬ 
ment appears. In mental science “Discourage¬ 
ment” must be struck from the lexicon and “Re¬ 
petition” put in its place. The cure may be 
effected in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year 
or longer. 

“In the bright lexicon of youth, that fate has 
reserved” for humanity, there is no such word 
as discouragement. The healing comes sometimes 
sooner, sometimes later, according to the individ¬ 
ual, the healer and the particular case. In the 


493 





494 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


event of not having an instantaneous healing, that 
wonderful formula, “Day hy day, in every way, 
Fm getting better and better/ r is surely a side- 
twister to use, a humdinger to think about and a 
prize-getter to repeat. 

Chronic 

The chronic invalid is, as a rule, a sufferer not 
only from pain but from habits of pain of long 
standing and settled habits are not easily broken. 
It should be expected that certain types of chronic 
invalidism may not be completely overcome at 
once. Re-education may be necessary. 

We had a patient who had been bedridden for 
seven years. When the bed linen was changed 
she had to be lifted as carefully as a new born 
babe. Every muscle of her body was, from seven 
years’ non-use, flabby and weak, yet she received 
an instantaneous healing and got up and walked. 

In fact, if a patient has a chronic condition, an 
ingrained habit of sickness, it may take ten, 
twelve or more sittings before the habit chain of 
wrong thinking has been severed and a new habit 
of health thinking put in its place and then the 
healing commence. 

How Often? 

Suggestions and auto-suggestions must be made 
as often as possible, every day, until the desired 


LENGTH OF TIME 


495 


results have been obtained, but one should not 
take his affirmations or formulae or hold auto¬ 
suggestions until he becomes tired, weary or worn 
out. A few minutes of snappy, peppy, gingerly 
affirmations sent out into the universal, ether 
backed by a mind of confidence and spirit of pow¬ 
er will mean more to the demonstrator than hours 
of “ affirmations ’ ’ taken in an indifferent fashion 
or in a tired, worn-out condition of mind or body. 

There is probably another reason why we 
should have a number of sittings, to make the 
patient well, to crowd out the old sick habit 
thoughts and to plant new health and harmonious 
thoughts in their place. It is proposed not only 
to overcome the disease habit but to establish a' 
health habit and to do this with some people it 
may take a longer time than with others. 

We cannot manifest this power over night. 
Take plenty of time to give nature a chance to 
work in accordance with her laws. 

Again, we say emphatically, Eepetition is a big 
word in mental healing. 

Stammering Cured 

A single illustration might suffice. In one of 
my classes was a man 65 years of age. He had 
stammered from the time he was 3 years old. He 
was instantly healed in the class. 


496 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Another case in mind is that of a man in his 
early thirties, who had stammered since boyhood. 
His stammering was accompanied by twitching 
and contortions of the face. He had tried various 
methods to cure stammering but to no avail. I 
treated him three times a week for three months. 
At the end of this time his speech was nearly per¬ 
fect.* 

Thus you see the element of time is a matter to 
be reckoned with in each particular case, with 
each temperament and with each individual. In 
any case, however, this is a safe rule to follow: 

Always continue to give a few treatments after 
the patient seems to have recovered from his 
lingual difficulty, in order to render the cure more 
certain and permanent . 

We have elsewhere treated at great length the 
fact that almost all kinds of disease can be cured. 
In short, whatever the mind creates can be erased. 

* Stammering is not only a mental but also a physical condition. 
In the case of every person who stammers you will notice that 
when he gets “stuck” in his speech, the diaphragm rises, the 
abdomen goes inward and usually there is a palpitation of the 
muscles of the waist. While we believe that the power of mind can 
perform wonders, we strongly advocate that the stammerer 
should, in order to overcome his impediment, learn how to breathe 
properly. A man cannot stammer if he controls his breath; if, 
whenever he seems to be “stuck,” he takes time to breathe and 
throw the diaphragm out. A course in correct breathing is given 
under the sections of “Breathing” and “Voice” in “Practical Psy- 
cology and Sex Life,” Vol. Ill of this series. 



LENGTH OF TIME 


497 


Bruises, burns, wounds, muscular strain, even 
when most severe, heal rapidly under the treat¬ 
ment of the mental therapeutist. Even the attend¬ 
ant pain may be suppressed from the very first. 

The following is a striking illustration of what 
the mind will do: 

Dislocated Ankle 

My daughter fell, dislocated her ankle and 
wrenched the tendons so badly that she was not 
able to step upon it for six weeks. Not only the 
ankle but the leg all the way up to the knee was 
badly swollen. From time to time during those 
six weeks, the flesh changed color, from blood red, 
to black and blue, then to yellow. The yellowish 
color took on (if you do not believe in psychology) 
a particularly ugly appearance. I am sure that 
under the care of an ordinary physician a patient 
in such case would have been scared half to death. 
As the discoloration came and went the necessity 
for an operation would have occurred to some. 
My own opinion is that had we had the best of 
medical attention, an operation would have been 
recommended. 

The accident happened in mid-afternoon. I gave 
one magnetic treatment before I went to my night 
lecture. When I returned at eleven o’clock, my 


498 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


daughter was sitting up in bed nursing her foot, 
with the tears running down her cheeks, saying: 
“Papa, I have been talking to my ankle, yet it 
just doesn’t seem to want to stop hurting.” I 
gave her one more treatment and then sent her 
to bed. As she was dropping off to sleep holding 
the Silence, her foot began to throb and jerk from 
one side of the bed to the other. She felt a pull, 
a twist and a snap; the dislocated bones were 
resuming their proper position. 

The pain subsided although the swelling and 
discoloration from time to time continued for six 
weeks. 

We believe that if a bone is broken, we should, 
of course, help nature to help itself, but we pro¬ 
duce this illustration to emphasize the fact that 
there is no hard and fast rule that can be laid 
down for the number of treatments needed or the 
length of each treatment. Probably each case, 
each individual, is a law to itself and to himself. 
While nature was doing her mending I continued 
giving daily magnetic treatments for three weeks. 

We believe, as I have mentioned elsewhere in 
this series, that whatever method we use in mental 
therapeutics, we must ever remember that there 
are no miracles in nature, that God works accord- 


LENGTH OF TIME 


499 


ing to certain rules and laws, that if it takes a 
hundred years to grow a century plant, the neces¬ 
sary time must be allowed, and if nature demands 
six weeks to remake the tissues and fibers and 
build up broken bones and torn ligaments, we 
must yield to her insistance. We can help nature 
but we cannot rush nature. 

H. C. Shepherd in “ Psychology Made Prac¬ 
tical”* has had similar experiences which we 
quote below: 

For specific treatment by Suggestion the best time is 
that which one can best maintain daily with regularity. 
The morning, at the moment of awakening, should not be 
overlooked, as there one has both relaxation and passivity 
well in hand. Conversely, the night time, just before going 
to sleep and just after retiring, is also excellent, as the 
natural tendency is already toward relaxation and pas¬ 
sivity. Also, it is well to take oneself into training for 
ability to achieve relaxation, passivity, and fixation of 
attention during the day, if for no other purpose than to 
demonstrate independence of self from the hypnosis of 
the counter currents of desire in action, which we are only 
too prone to think of as the entirety of life. With utiliza¬ 
tion of the morning and evening treatments no more than 
one additional session during the day should be required 
in healing or in Suggestion treatments for any other 
purpose. Peculiar exigencies and conveniences will, of 

*“Psychology Made Practical,” by H. C. Shepherd-Lathrop, 
Lee and Shepherd, Publishers, Boston, Mass. 



500 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


course, modify the length and frequency of treatments, the 
only feature rigidly recommended being regularity and 
an appreciative eye for psychological moments, which may 
occur extraneous of deliberated efforts. 

Treatments by suggestion as here explained are as ap¬ 
plicable to oneself as to another. In the practice of a 
healer, when a patient calls, “see that the caller is seated 
or reclining at ease. No strain should be allowed on any 
part of the body. The head should be supported and a 
stool should relieve the feet if the patient occupies a chair.” 
Suggest at this juncture: “Relax—physical relaxation is 
required; let go of every nerve and muscle; imagine them 
being loosened as strings on a violin are loosened by turn¬ 
ing back the pins.” When it is seen that this Suggestion 
has been well carried out, then suggest mental Passivity: 
“Now permit the mind to be at ease. Refuse to entertain 
any thought. For a few moments you may count mentally 
—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten— 
and repeat, just as an aid to ridding the mind of all 
thoughts but the mechanical sort needed for counting. 
Now it is easier to reject just that mild current needed to 
count than it would have been the 'former trains. Come to 
ten again—mentally.” (Counting with him, building your 
imagination to accompany with all the calm force possible 
the Suggestion you are about to make.) “Fix your AT¬ 
TENTION,” and right after the word “attention” while 
looking straight into the eyes of the person, say in as few 
words as possible exactly what he should do, the truth 
being that if the moment thus induced is truly “phycho- 
logical” the “he” you are talking to at that moment is the 
subconscious mind of the person. Your Suggestion is thus 


LENGTH OF TIME 


501 


implanted in the person’s subconscious mind as a new 
“working order.” 

To the extent that you can have the person induce with 
himself flawless relaxation and passivity will you secure 
the fixation of attention so necessary in the manufacture 
of the “psychological moment/’ wherein it is practically 
impossible for the Suggestion to miscarry or dissipate 
itself in the arguing, objective mind. Therefore, by indi¬ 
cations which at first you will have to guess at (such as 
facial immobility or a hazy steady stare, etc.), and which 
by experience later you will recognize more easily, “get a 
line” on where the person undergoes this susceptible period 
and learn to take advantage of it. Implant your sugges¬ 
tions then. 

As soon as your own energies seem strained through the 
effort, or when you judge that enough has been done for 
the time, either by resumption of ordinary conversation, 
snapping the fingers or other methods let the unmistakable 
inference be that the treatment is over for that time. Do 
not yourself advert to the ailment or the treatment at this 
period. It is usually a quite susceptible period still, and 
conversation should be planned and guided accordingly. 
If the patient himself refers to the treatment, or especially 
if he mentions any good effect already experienced, bolster 
his faith and the reality of the new condition that is now 
in the building; do this by citation of former experiences 
of successful treatment or do it by sound argument from 
your knowledge of applied psychology. Do not lie. Let 
the conversation be all for encouragement and let it include 
the encouragement not even to think about the ailment or 
the treatments. The subconscious mind is doing quite all 


502 


PSYCHOLOGY OP HEALING 


that is necessary. Let that be the attitude both with your¬ 
self and with the caller. 

This should answer the purpose with completeness in 
so far as the ordinary person and his ailment is concerned. 
But fail not to become adept at discerning psychological 
moments or susceptible periods wherever and whenever 
they occur. Many a person who is desirous of aid by his 
very inrooted anxiety unfits himself for benefit in that the 
anxiety shares that same level of consciousness where the 
required fixation of attention should normally take place. 
It is, indeed, difficult to induce the required susceptibility 
in such persons by the method just outlined. But as a 
saving factor such people carry about with them one or 
several “susceptibilities” which it is required of the Sug- 
gestionist to discover. Keep the attention alert during 
conversation; watch the idiosyncracies. One peculiar case, 
probably very unusual, yet indicative of what is meant, 
came to the author’s attention through the work of another 
psychologist. A woman of about fifty—analytical, critical, 
petulant, neurotic—called on him for treatment. In three 
sittings she had derived no benefit and did not hesitate to 
complain in that regard. All attempts at true mental 
passivity had, of course, failed. She seemed too analytical 
to make available such half-baked psychological moments 
as offered themselves through her rather weak emotions. 
It is doubtful whether she was able even physically to relax 
well enough for the subsequent requirements. Fixation 
of attention seemed the height of impossibility. During 
her fourth visit—in fact, before treatment had commenced 
—the maid was summoned to remove this lady’s wet mack¬ 
intosh to the anteroom. While doing so, the maid acci- 


LENGTH OP TIME 


503 


dently hit the button of the mackintosh against a Siamese 
chime which stood on a taborette behind the lady’s chair. 
The psychologist happened to be scrutinizing the lady at 
the time, and at sound of the bell noticed the peculiar 
haziness of eyes which in others he had always taken for a 
moment of Suggestibility. He “took a chance” and earn¬ 
estly gazing directly into her eye, although she had not 
even as yet been seated, gave the command to her with 
intensity that fixation of attention as complete as the kind 
she was in right then would be possible during the present 
and subsequent visits, and that improvement of her condi¬ 
tion was even now in progress. 

A half dozen more treatments not only showed that by 
the accident he had discovered the key to the situation in 
how to fix her attention, but readjusted the state of her 
nerves and of her life in greater measure than she had 
ever hoped. When completely recovered and the psycholo¬ 
gist no longer deemed it necessary to preserve the sanctities 
of the occasion, he asked her if she could throw any light 
on why the sound of the chime had produced on her so 
peculiar an effect. To this her reply was that she did not 
know but that she had merely decided on a moment’s or a 
second’s revery. On further question, she had a dear friend, 
it developed, engaged in missionary endeavors in China, 
who in his letters did not entirely disregard the poetic 
factors of Chinese life. He had spoken of Chinese gongs 
to her. She had never before, however, heard the sound 
of them and could accord no further elucidation but that 
her decision to “become absent minded” in the interest of 
her friend abroad had been independent of the gong. 


504 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Of course, with the weeping people, or with those who 
rave and tear their hair in the latest approved fashions 
over their difficulties, the matter is simplified for the 
psychologist. To illustrate crudely: When an emotion “ob¬ 
trudes” from the person the emotion itself can safely be 
taken as a speaking tube ending in the subconscious mind. 
Yociferousness at such times in the administering of Sug¬ 
gestions—earnest, intent, “pounding it in”—will achieve 
an improvement if not an instantaneous cure. The emo¬ 
tionalism is, however, the very thing that invited the 
irregularity for which you are treating the patient. Hence, 
when it has been used as the channel of cure, it is wise, as 
it is good, to seal up by Suggestion that very avenue. 
Expound to the subconscious mind the necessity of build¬ 
ing with the energy heretofore wasted through emotions 
such factors of personality as will lead to calmness, dignity 
of poise and a genial, confident and helpful disposition. 

A very much distracted young lady called on an eminent 
psychologist known to the writer. She was in despair. 
Questions elicited the information that owing to her de¬ 
plorable state of health she was taking an enforced vacation 
from her position as a school teacher. She repeated again 
and again, “I have not the courage to go back! I can 
never teach again. I have not had a good, unworried 
night’s sleep for six weeks.” Her appearance seemed, in 
fact, to corroborate her words. In her weakened condition 
the only reaction she gave to the conventional attempts 
at calming her was an outburst of tears, verging on hys¬ 
teria. Here was not alone emotion, but violent emotion. 
Violent emotion equals (involuntary) fixation of attention, 
which equals a psychological moment or extreme suscep- 


LENGTH OF TIME 


505 


tibility to suggestion. No time was lost. The young lady 
was COMMANDED to quiet herself and fix her attention 
on the Suggestions of confidence, nerve energy readjust¬ 
ment, health and efficiency. With such Suggestions she 
was literally bombarded for a quarter of an hour. Then 
for another half hour, more in a conversational tone, she 
was made to listen to the psychologist, who molded the 
conversation to as inspirational and encouraging a tone as 
could be stimulated and sustained at the time. The young 
lady went away calmed, feeling better; it was hard to 
decide if she was cured. The next Monday she telephoned 
in from the suburban school to say that since the treat¬ 
ment she had been blessed by the two best nights of refresh¬ 
ing and recuperating sleep in her life and that she could 
see nothing but the ridiculous side of her last week’s 
predicament. Simpler than Sanitarium, morphine, trained 
nurses and all the paraphernalia to consummate a like 
cure of nervous prostration, was it not? As this book 
goes to press a letter arrives from the young lady stating 
that if she gets the high school class for which she is now 
qualifying she intends to work hard for the introduction 
of “that kind” of Applied Psychology into the curriculum. 

This accounts, as forwarned, for only two or three 
cases. What of other ailments? Produce, or, recognize 
the psychological moment if it is self-produced. When it 
is evident that the patient is objectively aware during the 
Suggestions, frame them in such manner that the person 
will not be disappointed if instantaneous results are not 
obtained. All work of this kind, in the private mind of 
the Suggestionist, should be in confident expectation of 
complete and instantaneous and permanent cure. Para- 


506 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


doxical as it may seem, no disappointment should be enter¬ 
tained in the operator’s mind at the end of the treatment, 
no matter how minor the step of improvement so far 
attained. So far, so good, is the proper attitude, and a 
good one to transfer also to the patient. Feel and know 
that the subconscious mind built the body in the first 
place and that even now, through its position with regard 
to the cells and nerve energy, its directions are obeyed 
implicitly. Again, by application of the Law of the Sub¬ 
conscious Mind, which is Suggestion—nothing more and 
nothing less—the results aimed for must appear. If they 
are slow in appearing, hasten the process—again by Sug¬ 
gestion—if hastening is deemed advisable. 


Give Something Definite 

It is always well for the healer to give a definite 
thought or affirmation for the patient to hold. 
The ordinary person likes to be told just what to 
do and just how to do it. So each time a visit is 
made or a treatment given a definite statement, 
should be offered the patient, for him to affirm. 
Here again is where Character Analysis comes 
into play. Such types as the Thoracic and Mus¬ 
cular will require more affirmations and a greater 
variety than the staid Osseous and quiet Mental 
or Cerebral. 

Not only should a definite statement be given 
to the patient each time, but, we repeat, the prac¬ 
titioner ought to know all of the four reasons 
why people are sick (found in Psycho-Analysis- 
Kinks in the Mind, by the author) and then be 
able to explain how the mind heals. 

All Depends 

There is no standard yardstick whereby to 
measure the length of time needed for healing. It 
depends upon the individual, the case and the 
healer. The healing process should be continued, 
however, until a correction of wrong habits of 
thinking has been set up by persistent repetition 


507 


508 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and habits of right thinking established, no matter 
how long it may take. It is, therefore, really a 
matter for the patient and practitioner to decide 
between them. The treatments should be con¬ 
tinued until the old undesirable habits make room 
for the new and constructive ones, which soon be¬ 
come the predominating habits to the exclusion of 
the old. 

Where a malignant sickness has existed for 
sometime and the tissues have been destroyed, it 
is obvious that we should give nature sufficient 
time to allow the cells to be stimulated by nutri¬ 
tion, breathing, exercises and thinking, so that 
health cells may multiply to overcome the waste 
tissue. 

Thus we work in harmony with nature’s mode 
of restoration. With natural process of restora¬ 
tive power. 

Use Wisdom 

When it comes to deciding how many treat¬ 
ments and how often these treatments should be 
given or taken, wisdom must be exercised. The 
patient and his temperament, the practitioner and 
his training and circumstances in general must 
be taken into account. For chronic or malignant 
cases it would be better, as a rule to have treat- 


LENGTH OF TIME 


509 


ments daily at first and then probably three times 
a week. This program may be pursued with some 
patients for two or three months. Then I believe 
it would be better for the treatments to be sus¬ 
pended for a short time, after which they should 
be renewed. 

But there’s no hard and fast rule. Each practi¬ 
tioner should get away from dogmatic and pedan¬ 
tic rules and be governed by his best judgment. In 
my own practice, in the midst of a great campaign 
(during which I give fourteen public lectures fol¬ 
lowed by two classes in general psychology, char¬ 
acter analysis, a healing and scientific living, as 
well as a purely healing class) I usually take a 
patient but once. In some cases of cancer, blind¬ 
ness, and certain kinds of lameness, I have seen 
the subject daily for a while. In at least ninety- 
five per cent of all of my practice, however, I give 
only one treatment but it would be unfair to ex¬ 
pect every healer to have the same beneficial re¬ 
sults from one treatment as the writer, because, 
I say, I take the fourteen days for public lectures 
to build up the psychological moment for healing. 
During these lectures I demonstrate in public and 
heal people on the platform of different diseases. 
This helps to encourage and stimulate those who 
are seeking health to the maximum amount of 


510 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


expectancy and faith, so that by the time private 
appointments are made, patients have reached the 
psychological moment for a healing and can just 
as easily do so for another, if the local teacher 
follows the suggestion of the writer about having 
classes. The lecturer and healer will also have 
the psychological atmosphere and vibrations built 
up to such an extent that many people will he 
healed in the classes without any personal atten¬ 
tion at all. We have had nearly every conceivable 
disease known in America, healed in our classes 
without my having touched the patients or given 
them special personal attention or treatments. 
We have had broken necks, misplaced vertebraes, 
curvature of the spine, blindness from birth, deaf¬ 
ness for forty years, lameness of all kinds and 
descriptions, ranging from ordinary rheumatic 
lameness to misplaced bones and even to some 
cases where the doctors said tendons had been 
cut and parts of joints removed so that the pa¬ 
tient they asserted never could have articulation. 

Usually a Longer Time 

Few of the leading healers advise long treat¬ 
ments, believing that the best results are obtained 
in a treatment of fifteen minutes or less in length. 


LENGTH OF TIME 


511 


There can be, of course, no hard and fast rule 
either relative to this. The practitioner’s intui¬ 
tion must be the guide. 

In my own practice, ten minutes is a long time 
for a private treatment, where there is no educa¬ 
tional talk in connection with it. I very seldom 
employ more than fifteen minutes but if that “ still 
small voice,” the healer’s true monitor, gives me 
a feeling that the treatment should be prolonged, 
I never fail to listen to the admonition of the 
divine oracle. 

This is likewise true in my class. I run all 
classes as a rule, very promptly on schedule time. 
Occasionally, though, when the vibrations are 
good, and I have the feeling that someone will be 
healed by continuing, or that I should, for some 
other reason, pursue my healing demonstrations 
longer, I do so. 

One of the outstanding features of a practi¬ 
tioner’s experience is, I believe, intuition—the 
hunch, to know what method to employ, what he 
should talk about, for it is necessary in mental 
healing to educate the patient to believe, to inform 
him how long the treatments shall last, etc. 


How Some Do It 

Some great teachers and healers never take a 
patient nnless they see them at least three times. 
This, of course, is not always the end of the treat¬ 
ment, but nnless the patient will visit the practi¬ 
tioner three times, some will not take them. In¬ 
deed, it would he few cases that might hope to be 
healed by only three visits. 

Do not long for instantaneous healing, for 
although that is sometimes possible, it is rarely 
desirable. 

People who are instantaneously healed, as a 
rule, do not take enough care of their mind or 
body to remain well. It is like money “come 
easy, go easy. ’* Healing is easy, and they do not 
take enough thought to conform their living ac¬ 
cording to the laws of life and if they have become 
sick because of wrong thinking and irregular liv¬ 
ing (which is the cause of most sickness,) they do 
not become good students, analyzing their own 
troubles, nor do they become good livers in ad¬ 
hering to the laws of health, and, of course, when 
they go back to their old way of living they are 
bound to revert. 


512 


LENGTH OF TIME 


513 


That real healing which brings with it the 
assurance of abiding and all conquering health is 
a matter of growth. 

The leading thought to be established in the 
mind of each patient should be repeated many, 
many times. This is often called “treatment” 
silent or audible. It is the repetition that fixes the 
thought in the mind. 

With some good people it may take three or 
four years for a complete healing from what may 
seem to others but a trivial disease or ailment. 
As we have mentioned elsewhere, there is often 
a going forward and then a sliding back; an im¬ 
provement and then a retrogresion. This should 
never discourage one who is demonstrating 
health. Our environment, conditions, circum¬ 
stances, training, temperament and education are 
all brought into play in the ultimate, permanent 
healing. 

Elizabeth Towne in “Elizabeth Towne’s Ex¬ 
periences in Self-Healing”* gives a splendid 
illustration of what I mean here. 

It was two or three years at least from the time I went 
to treating others, before I was myself fully healed. And 
through all this time when the old attacks would come on 
again I went through all the feelings of discouragement 

^Elizabeth Towne’s Experience in Self-Healing by Herself. 
Elizabeth Towne Co., Inc., Publishers, Holyoke, Mass. 



514 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and despair that any of my readers can imagine. It 
seemed at such times that I was relapsing into the old 
state and never would be healed. I even donbted the whole 
principle of mind-healing and tried to give it all np and 
forget it. 

But I could not. The truth held me , whether I held it 
or not. Every time I had a back-set I rose out of its 
discouragement and kept on trying. 

After it was all over and I knew myself healed I could 
see that the whole thing was a matter of outgrowing. As 
I gained control of myself the old attacks grew lighter 
(though once in a while I would seem to have as bad an 
attack as ever) and less frequent, and finally they failed 
to come at all. 

Whilst I was going through these experiences there were 
many times I could not see that I was making headway 
in the new directions. I was like the Israelites who wan¬ 
dered in the wilderness. It seemed to take me 40 years 
to do what 40 days ought to suffice for. I seemed too, to 
wander around and come back to the same starting place, 
as people are said to do when lost in a wilderness. But 
every discouraged spell preceded another spell of trying , 
and on I went. 

I know now what I never suspected then, that there are 
UNSEEN tides of spiritual force which work in and 
through us, and which rise and fall, rise and fall, as do the 
tides of ocean. When these spiritual tides are rising we are 
impelled to greater activity and accomplishment. Then it 
is we congratulate ourselves that are are “growing.” But as 
these spiritual tides ebb again we feel an inertia creeping 
through us; we don't want to try. We grow frightened at 


LENGTH OF TIME 


515 


our own backslidings and imagine we are all wrong. And 
many times fear lashes us into desperate strivings, which 
only tire us and accomplish nothing at all. It is as if we 
had been joyously swimming with an incoming wave of 
the ocean, and then fought despairing against the outflow 
as it struck us. 

Now a wise swimmer never battles against the outflow. 
He works with the incoming wave; dives under its break¬ 
ing crest; and then floats and rests and lets the outflow 
carry him out with it. But he knows he will be again 
caught by an incoming wave, and that by taking advantage 
of it, by working with it, he can swim much nearer in 
shore than he was before. So by resting on the outflow he 
gains power to work with the incoming wave, and thus 
reaches easily the shore. But the swimmer who grows 
afraid and battles desperately on through ebb and flow 
alike, will wear out his strength and go down. 

Through all creation runs the same ebb and flow, ebb 
and flow, which you can see in the ocean. It is the life- 
pulse of creation. And there is in it pulse within pulse— 
the long ebb and flow of spring and fall, the short ebb 
and flow at your own wrist. Just so there are long spiritual 
spring-flows and fall-ebbs, and there are the short daily 
ones you can easily feel. And there are infinitely smaller 
ones of which you are not yet conscious, but to which you 
subconsciously respond. The spiritual tides of the One- 
Power flow in all veins. We feel them, and respond, but 
we as yet only dimly understand. 

But where we cannot understand we may trust. As I 
wandered in the wilderness of “ups and downs,” as I 
descended from Transfiguration Mounts to deep Valleys of 


516 


PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Shadows, and then ascended again, and yet was never quite 
lost, I learned more and more how to trust; until in time 
I came to KNOW that “all things work together for good” 
to those who work with them. 

All nature works, and then rests; works and rests. I 
caught its rhythm and worked and rested with it. When 
I felt that inertia stealing over me, I rested; and while 
resting my power recuperated —the tide rose in me. 

You will be wondering if I never had experiences of 
healing self instantaneously. No, I never did, nor do I 
know of anyone else who ever did. But I have had numbers 
of experiences of quick healing both for self and others. 
I consider this sort of thing the very smallest part of the 
healing business. The great part is the waking up of self 
and others to the daily effort on right lines which enables 
one to outgrow the need of healing. 

All healing is a matter of changing the mind. The more 
shallow and easily influenced the mind the more readily 
and deeply it can be changed by another. Helen Wilmans’ 
most remarkable cases of quick healing were done among 
the warm hearted, imaginative and ignorant negroes of the 
south. The more character and positiveness a person has, 
the slower is the work of healing; and the surer it is. 

Another general rule is that it is easier to heal another 
quickly than yourself. It is an easy matter to become en¬ 
thused and made over by a new truth for the first time 
presented to you; it is a vastly different thing to generate 
mental force so much stronger than your own average that 
it can quickly change the vibrations of your mind and body. 

Still another general rule is that acute troubles, which 
are quickly developed, can be quickly healed. They have 


LENGTH OF TIME 


517 


not the root holds on temperament that chronic troubles 
have. They are born and developed on the surface like a 
sudden squall; whilst chronic troubles begin away back in 
the past and away down in the bowels of things, and keep 
gathering force as they grow. In such the healing must 
begin away down too, and gather force enough to change 
all this. 

All my chronic troubles took time and self-conquering 
to heal. But a cold, or a headache, or a stomachache, could 
be quickly changed— sometimes. Many times I failed. And 
a fit of blues, or a very tired condition of body could be 
almost instantly dispelled—when I happened to hit the 
right combination. 

I well remember one time, when I had just put out an 
extra large washing—so large that I gave way to the 
temptation to hurry, just a little. I was so tired I could 
hardly move and had planned to spend an hour or two on 
the couch before I did anything more. I was so tired and 
weak that my voice had the hollow sound of a sick person. 
(I could not wear myself to that extent now if I tried— 
there is too steady a reserve force in me, growing stronger 
every year.) 

Well, the door bell rang and there was, not a caller but 
a visitor, come to stay the afternoon! She wanted help 
on “spiritual lines.” So I went in for a regular Bible study 
and talked a blue streak. I loved this sort of work and if 
I had an appreciative listener there was no end to my 
chatter. In about fifteen minutes after she “got me started” 
I happened to think of my tired out condition and behold, 
it was gone completely. I never felt better in my life, 
and I stayed strong and well. This is a good illustration 


518 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


of quick healing. If I had lain down I would have been 
hours recovering, but a quick and complete change of mind 
filled me almost instantly with new energy. 

Whenever, either by another person calling out m}* 
energies as in this case; or by special treatment—when¬ 
ever by any means I can quickly change my mind I am 
quickly made whole again. 

In answering the question which so many peo¬ 
ple propound, u How long will it be necessary to 
wait for healing by affirmation ?” we might re¬ 
spond with the counter question, “How long will 
it take a carpenter to build a house ?” The an¬ 
swer to which, of course, depends upon several 
things—the carpenter’s knowledge of certain 
mechanical laws; his skill; whether he be a man 
of quick action or slow; whether the work is 
simple or complicated; what is his state of phys¬ 
ical vigor; whether he is in practice or out of 
practice. 

So when we are asked about the element of time 
in healing, the reply must naturally be governed 
by a number of elements. How skillfully has the 
practitioner helped the patient to find his “kink?” 
How able is he to inspire the patient to have faith 
in himself and his healing methods? How suc¬ 
cessful is he in choosing his method or methods 
of healing? The time element also depends upon 


LENGTH OF TIME 


519 


the ability of the patient to fix his attention npon 
himself, how well he can concentrate; npon 
whether he will carry out implicitly the instruc¬ 
tions of the practitioner; whether he will take 
time during the day to help himself; whether he 
will talk to his subconscious mind at night upon 
retiring.* 

So there is really no time limit. The more 
quickly the patient is able to transfnute thought 
into feeling and action the more quickly he may 
be healed. Jesus expressed it thus: “According 
to your faith, be it unto you.” 

Why? 

One principal cause of the partial or total failure in so 
many cases where people pretend to use auto-suggestion 
without outside help or hypnosis, rests on the fact that they 
do not do the work, or only half do it at best. It is not 
enough for us simply to give ourselves a passing thought 
now and then just as we may snatch the time from other 
interests. No, no! If we expect to accomplish any great 
results by the use of auto-suggestion, we must give it our 
undivided attention at stated intervals, and continue each 
effort for at least thirty minutes, and longer—from thirty 
minutes to one hour each day—in cases where the condi¬ 
tions require immediate and radical changes. Where people 
thus earnestly engage to employ auto-suggestion, and keep 

*For the right way to go to sleep and to charge the subcon¬ 
scious mind, see chapters on “Subconscious Mind” in “Practical 
Psychology and Sex Life,” Yol. Ill of this series. 



520 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


it up, persevere in it from day to day, from week to week, 
or even from month to month, they can absolutely overcome 
any adverse condition or habit where a cure is yet possible 
by any known means on earth. 

See what Prof. Elmer Gates says his patient 
did by Auto-Suggestion: 

Mrs. K., of Philadelphia, had an almost entire absence 
of the mammary glands, and by taking a quiet attitude 
and continuously directing her attention for one hour each 
forenoon and one hour each afternoon to the left breast, 
holding to the thought that it was growing larger, it be¬ 
came in fourteen weeks of a size more than four and a 
half times as large as the right. She then treated the right 
gland in like manner and in nine weeks it became of the 
same size as the left. 

“It should be constantly kept in mind that the 
cure of all diseases and the correction of habits 
by suggestion are educational processes. We 
earnestly engage to properly direct the thoughts 
of our patients, and by appropriate suggestions, 
under proper conditions, we persuade people to 
leave off their old methods of thinking and place 
their minds upon things and conditions to be 
wished for and worthy of enjoyment. We literally 
change their habits of thought and thus renew 
them in soul and body.” 


LENGTH OF TIME 


521 


Why They Fail 

The only reason why we ever fail to make an 
instantaneous healing is that we cannot establish 
a perfect realization. Just when the ordinary 
person will reach that plane of consciousness it is 
hard to prophesy. Of course, when we are in per¬ 
fect harmony with all of the laws of life there can 
he no sickness. Just when people will he able to 
effect a perfect realization it is hard to tell. It is 
safe to say that when we can establish a perfect 
realization, we can have an instantaneous healing. 

The race in general is of course today a long 
ways from being in this perfect consciousness. 

Judge T. Troward speaks authoritatively in his 
“Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science” when 
he says: 


Universal Principle 

Now the principle universally laid down by all mental 
healers, in whatever various terms they may explain it, 
is that the basis of all healing is a change in belief. The 
sequence from which this results is as follows: the subjec¬ 
tive mind is the creative faculty within us, and creates 
whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; the objec¬ 
tive mind, or intellect, impresses its thought upon it; the 
thought is the expression of the belief; hence whatever the 
subjective mind creates is the reproduction externally of 
our beliefs. Accordingly our whole object is to change our 
beliefs, and we cannot do this without some solid ground 


522 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


of conviction of the falsity of our old beliefs and of the 
truth of our new ones, and this ground we find in that 
law of causation which I have endeavored to explain. The 
wrong belief which externalizes as sickness is the belief 
that some secondary cause, which is really only a condition, 
is a primary cause. The knowledge of the law shows that 
there is only one primary cause, and this is the factor 
which in our own individuality we call subjective or sub¬ 
conscious mind. For this reason I have insisted on the 
difference between placing an idea in the subconscious 
mind, that is, on the plane of the absolute and without 
reference to time and space, and placing the same idea in 
the conscious intellectual mind which only perceives things 
as related to time and space. Now the only conception you 
can have of yourself in the absolute, or unconditioned, is 
as purely living Spirit, not hampered by conditions of any 
sort, and therefore not subject to illness; and when this 
idea is firmly impressed on the subconscious mind, it will 
externalize it. The reason why this process is not always 
successful at the first attempt is that all our life we have 
been holding the false belief in sickness as a substantial 
entity in itself and thus being a primary cause, instead of 
being merely a negative condition resulting from the ab¬ 
sence of a primary cause; and a belief which has become 
ingrained from childhood cannot be eradicated at a mo¬ 
ment’s notice. We often find, therefore, that for some time 
after a treatment there is an improvement in the patient’s 
health, and then the old symptoms return. This is because 
the new belief in his own creative faculty has not yet had 
time to penetrate down to the innermost depths of the 
subconscious mind, but has only partially entered it. Each 


LENGTH OF TIME 


523 


succeeding treatment strengthens the subconscious mind 
in its hold of the new belief until at last a permanent cure 
is effected. This is the method of self-treatment based on 
the patient’s own knowledge of the law of his being. 

Have Patience 

Another thing to he taken into consideration is 
that there must be patience exercised on the part 
of both the patient and the practitioner. Many a 
person delays his healing by being over-anixous. 
An early rule in mental science was this: “No 
trial is a fair one which is less than an hour in 
duration, ’ ’ but, of course, we cannot dogmatically 
make such a statement as this. Some people who 
are of the thoracic or muscular make-up might he 
fidgeted to death when being treated for an hour. 
Another type, say the alimentive or mental, would 
rather enjoy a practitioner’s giving an hour’s 
treatment either by instruction or similar method 
of healing. 

Sufficient time should he taken until the sub¬ 
conscious mind has dropped the old habit of 
wrong thinking—sickness—and the habit of right 
thinking—health—-Las taken its place. 


How Long at a Bitting? 

In the case of chronic disorder, of course, it 
would take a longer time and probably as much 
as two periods a day lasting from fifteen to 
twenty minutes each. In my own experience, I 
have sometimes taken cancer patients or those 
suffering from other malignant diseases two and 
three times a day. 

It is well to remember that it is important that 
more than a suggestive treatment be given. Time 
and attention should be given to the study of the 
things which make for the development of mental 
and physical powers. The temper of the mind 
has to be sustained by reading and associating 
with people of like stimulating minds. We have 
devoted one whole chapter in this book under 
“How the Practitioner Works’’ to hints for and 
ways of doing this. 

One should also establish a habit of regularity 
in the taking of treatments. This is not abso¬ 
lutely necessary but for most types of people, it 
is a safe plan to be regular with the doses of con¬ 
centrated thinking, reading and healing. 

And you must be persistent! We can not hope 
to secure results from spasmodic sprees in our 


524 


LENGTH OF TIME 


525 


effort to get health through a mind cure. We 
have already mentioned that healing by mind is 
a process of re-educating the mind. Spasmodic 
leaps and starts cannot possibly he effective. In 
fact, what habit can be established without stick¬ 
ing to it? 

Personal Experience 

When the subject of Mental Healing was first 
thrust upon me, I was an orthodox minister. Mrs. 
Bush was suffering from a disease peculiar to her 
sex. The doctors said that she would have to 
have two operations, probably three, and then 
they were not sure that they could save her. That 
wasn’t much of a chance for her life. So we did 
what brings most people into psychology: we 
turned in our extremity to the power of Mind. 

Within six weeks Mrs. Bush was a well woman. 
She was treated nearly every day during the six 
weeks, and only one affirmation was used. That 
affirmation follows: 

I am filled with the abundant ever present life of 
spirit. It flows through me freely, cleansing, purify¬ 
ing and vitalizing every part. I am one in this life 
and in it I am every whit whole. 

That leads us to the next step in the element of 
time in healing—how many affirmations or how 
many thoughts shall we hold? That depends 


526 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


wholly upon the individual, his temperament and 
makeup. The Thoracic and muscular types as we 
have said may like to change the thought they 
hold, while the other types may prefer sticking 
to one affirmation or formula. It all depends 
upon the individual, the practitioner and the case 
in hand. 


Chemical Reaction 

Thomas Parker Boyd, one of the greatest au¬ 
thorities on mental healing as well as a most suc¬ 
cessful psycho-therapeutist always insists on 
patients seeing him three times in succession. He 
says: 

I always do that, and I do it for the reason that about 
one person in five or six will be worse after the first treat¬ 
ment. ISTow all mental and spiritual healers find that to 
be true. Even Mrs. Eddy found it to be true, and she came 
mighty near giving the right explanation. 

Conflict of Emotions 

Take a man accustomed to live in an atmosphere of fear, 
and introduce into that man’s life, Love, as the great, 
supreme motive, and unquestionably there is a change in 
the chemical condition of his body. But, for instance, 
suppose his mind is not so receptive as to grasp that Truth, 
you have a battle with the chemical condition already in 
the body, and he is liable to feel worse instead of better. 
Most people will be better right from the first, but some¬ 
times, where the contrast is so great between new and old 


LENGTH OF TIME 


527 


ideas, they will feel worse rather than better; and for that 
reason, I make it a rule to say, “I would like to see you 
three times in succession”; and I never tell them why. 
Each will imagine he is the one in five or six. The only 
thing is to make the condition that they will come, and, if 
they should happen to he worse on account of the change 
in the chemical condition of the body, you have a chance 
to reinforce the truth for right chemical condition because 
you have strengthened and started the emotional love to 
act in the right direction. 

The main thing to bear in mind is that one can 
^hinder results or advance them according to his 
failure to recognize or his readiness to cooperate 
with the practitioner and the “Power within.’’ 
If one thinks that he is negative and “wonders 
what it’s all about, whether there is anything in 
it or not,” the best and simplest mode of coopera¬ 
tion is to let the mind turn many times daily to 
thoughts of the existence and continuous activity 
of this healing power; that this creative principle 
is ever present; that there is no limit to the laws 
of life, no limit to what God can do. 

We should never limit the time for a cure to 
be realized but resolve to let it come in its own 
good way and its own good time. The length of 
time depends a great deal upon the individual, 
the nature of the disease, the person’s tempera¬ 
ment. Let it be remembered that anxiety, fear 


528 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


and doubt make people nervous, discourage and 
depress them and so delay a speedy cure. On the 
other hand hope and conditions of perfect ease 
and trust, courage and faith favor a rapid re¬ 
covery. 

Not Always Seen at First 

In some stubborn cases the practitioner may 
find that the patient does not seem to improve 
very much after a few treatments. Suppose the 
patient says, “I have tried to do what you have 
instructed but I still see little, if any change. I 
appear to be just about the same as before.” 
Then the wise practitioner will reply encourag¬ 
ingly to the effect that this may be true, “You 
are,” he can properly say, “apparently no better 
than last week in so far as the conscious mind 
seems to register; but there is this difference; you 
then were accomplishing nothing, possibly even 
going backward. Today you are nearer the goal 
than before. You are subconsciously in a better 
condition. Give the element of time an opportu¬ 
nity to help.” 

No Limit in Spirit 

We should, of course, be slow to place any lim¬ 
itation upon the power of Infinite Spirit. Omnip¬ 
otence can do anything that God can do but there 


LENGTH OF TIME 


529 


are some things which God cannot do. For in¬ 
stance, God cannot make a train go forward and 
backward at one and the same time. Yon cannot 
climb a greased pole upward and descend into a 
hole in the earth at one and the same time. God 
doesn’t make a century plant over night. All life 
requires a stated time for its embryonic state, for 
its growth and for its maturity. We are, there¬ 
fore, not irreverent when we say there are some 
things which God cannot do. 

Divine Principle—The First Great Cause, The 
Infinite Spirit, God—works in cooperation with 
the natural laws which this spirit is operating. 
Mental practitioners must, therefore, use reason 
along with their enthusiasm and faith. It is all 
very well to he idealistic and altruistic but our 
every aesthetic ambition should he tempered by 
good judgment, practicality and common sense. 

So the power within—the God Spirit—both in 
the patient and in the healer, may not have com¬ 
plete realization in a day. There is just as much 
reason to expect that by practice, by thought, and 
by use, we shall be able to develop this hidden 
power within us to a complete realization as that 
we shall strengthen by use any other talent which 
we may possess. 


530 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


There is, right now, a talent for art, music, 
sculpture, business, poetry, latent in the con¬ 
sciousness of certain youth who will one day ex¬ 
press their varied talents and become world 
famous. The unknown becomes known. Inferi¬ 
ority progresses into superiority. Great men de¬ 
velop. They do not go to sleep on the talent which 
they have, neither do they sit down and expect 
latent brain force without effort and training to 
make them the influence in the world which they 
aspire to become. 

Latent Power 

No. They develop this latent power. They 
study, they work, they think, they plan, they rec¬ 
ognize this latent power and then pay the price 
to have it developed. Jesus said, “My father 
worked hitherto and I work” so all great men 
who store up this talent within. They develop it 
little by little, day by day, and week by week, 
month by month and year by year until they are 
finally ready to give it world wide expression. 

So the healer or patient should not think that 
in one setting he has attained complete realiza¬ 
tion of the power within. On the other hand, to 
begin to understand the secret forces, the reserve 
power and the God-given spirit with its almost 


LENGTH OF TIME 


531 


unlimited potentialities gives the patient and the 
practitioner a working basis on which to erect the 
unfoldment and development of this power. 
“Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be 
opened unto you. ’’ Therefore, fill your mind with 
thoughts of health, life and happiness until there 
is no room for anything else except the spirit of 
the ever unfolding God power. 

The man who takes an hour once a day to “affirm” 
things, and then lives the rest of the time in his feelings, 
telling himself he is all sorts of an idiot he doesn’t want 
to be, will make very slow progress compared to the one 
who sets himself to nip every undesired statement the 
moment it pops up in his mind—nip it short and fill its 
place with an emphatic, resolute statement of its desirable 
opposite. 


When Does Healing Begin? 

We are often asked “when does the healing 
begin V 9 It is reasonable to expect that nearly all 
therapeutic suggestions may be carried out at 
once. They are provided the patient is not too 
negative, at least in process of action from the 
moment he receives the suggestions. 

It is the degree of obedience which the patient 
gives to instructions, his belief or entire faith and 
his adaptability for training, which make possible 
the extent to which the healing is effected. 


532 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Mental Healing is not one final act, bnt is a 
process to be worked ont. It is not, as a rule, 
something to be done for us from without, once 
for all, but something to be done within us daily 
through the union of our own efforts with that 
Divine principle ever present within ourselves. 

It is our part to set in motion the God-given forces 
within, to cooperate with nature and so energize her pro¬ 
cesses as to secure and maintain health. To learn to use 
these forces as a method of self-help need not necessarily 
bar one from availing himself of scientific aid, and in some 
cases one will do better if every earthly prop is not swept 
away at once. 

Another Handicap 

One of the serious obstacles to mental healing 
is that tendency in man to let the mind go with 
any impulse, to follow the line of least resistance, 
to drift with the tide, and never to exert himself 
to pull against the current. 

We should all like to be successful but we do 
not want to pay the price in effort involved. We 
should all like to be rich if we may become so 
without work. We should like to have health, but 
oh, how easy it is not to help ourselves to keep 
well. This mental indolence is probably the real 
explanation why so many people are not healed 
more quickly. 


LENGTH OF TIME 


533 


To hold a thought, to affirm one’s health, to eat 
rightly, to breathe properly, to exercise as we 
should, means exertion and too many of ns don’t 
like exertion. If we could hold onr thonght with¬ 
out effort, if we could take our formula as we 
take a capsule, if we could heal ourselves by twid¬ 
dling our thumbs we should all promptly be 
healed. 

Many people will pay almost any price in suf¬ 
fering or inconvenience in performing feats of 
physical strength or athletic, prowess, but those 
who will change their conditions by taking mental 
attitudes are in the minority indeed. To exert 
themselves to speed up their mental processes, to 
hold tenaciously to a resolve involves effort some 
people refuse to face. 

To change the habit of one’s thinking means 
effort and work. To right-about-face from years 
of wrong mentation, takes more than a spiritual 
bugle blast; it takes a whole orchestra of deter¬ 
mination. 

If human beings strove as valiantly to gain or 
keep health as they do for victory in an athletic 
contest what a healthy world this would quickly 
become! 


534 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 

Give It Time 

Many people have a complete healing of vari¬ 
ous and divers troubles hut are not immediately 
restored to physical par. For instance, suppose 
someone has not been able to use his knee or walk 
without crutches for ten years. Then he has, let 
us say, had a healing so that he can use his knee, 
can walk without crutches in the home and on the 
street, but he still feels weak. Is that not to be 
expected? If you should put your arm in a sling 
for ten years and take it out, would it not re¬ 
quire more than one day for the arm to get back 
its original strength? If your pains have disap¬ 
peared and your joints are working satisfactorily 
and your organs are functioning normally, even 
though there may still seem to be a weakness or 
a condition not up to par, you should not allow 
your mind for one moment to suggest, or let any 
one else suggest to you, that you have not been 
healed. I have known of people who have been 
deaf and were healed, who have had rheumatism 
and were healed, who have had lameness and were 
healed—enjoyed perfect healings, and yet re¬ 
mained negative in their thinking or were sur¬ 
rounded by friends, relatives, pessimists or scof¬ 
fers at mental science so that the perfect healings 


LENGTH OF TIME 


535 


were not able to adjust themselves. The result 
was to be expected—the patient reverted. 

When you are healed, you are healed. Know 
it, believe it and think it. Ho not be so foolish 
as to want your old pains to come back again. 
Certain persons who have been healed are like the 
victims of some drug habit who have taken a cure 
and then reverted. They could not support the 
sense of loss occasioned by the disappearance o*f 
the evil habit. 

Many a man takes the so-called bi-chloride of 
gold cure for drink, comes out absolutely healed, 
and six months afterward makes the fatal mistake 
of indulging himself in another “first drink ’ 9 
which like the original first drink starts him on 
the downward road to debauchery again. He was 
healed, but he reverted. Many people who have 
been healed of sickness are the same way—they 
are not happy unless they go back and taste again 
of the old life which produced the sickness orig¬ 
inally. 

Therefore, you should first have great faith in 
yourself and in God to keep you well, offering 
thanksgiving and gratitude that you now have 
your health; second, allow no one, no conditions, 
no environment, no associates to tempt you or 
talk you into your sickness again. 


536 PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING 


Each Lives His Own Life 

I had a patient who had been healed of cancer. 
After the healing, she asked what she should do— 
go home or travel. I could tell by her thought that 
she was afraid that her relatives and associates 
back home would poke fun at the idea that she 
could be healed by mind. At first I told her to go 
hack and have confidence. However, she con¬ 
tinued to bring the question up so many times that 
I presently saw it would not do for her to return 
home just yet—she was so inoculated with fear 
that she would not he able to stand the criticisms 
of her relatives and friends. Contrary to my later 
counsel and urging, she did go home. There she 
was at once surrounded by skepticism and taunted 
with the jibe that mental healing was a fallacy. 
Besultr Well, within three months she was sick 
again. 

Each person must live his own life. No one else 
can live it for you. If you are healed and want to 
remain healed, don’t let somebody else make you 
sick again. 


...."''"""""""""""'i' 

Power to Create and Achieve 

BOOKS THAT TELL YOU HOW TO WIN LIFE’S BATTLE 
—THAT HELP YOU RESHAPE YOUR DESTINY-- 
THAT BUILD COURAGE—TEACH CONSTRUCTIVE 
THINKING — MOULD CHARACTER — HELP 
YOU BUILD MENTAL ACTIVITY—THAT 
TEACH YOU HOW TO CONQUER 
SELF AND OTHERS—KNOWL¬ 
EDGE THAT HELPS YOU 
DO MORE AND BE 
MORE. 


by David V. Bush 

PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS 
(Formerly Will Power and Success) 

Y OU want to know how to get the maximum amount of 
success—this book will unlock the hidden treasure. 

You do not have to live in lack and limitation when 
there are natural laws to give you abundance, health and 

happiness. , _ , 

This book makes plain the great laws for success, health, 

and abundance. , 

You cannot fail to understand or operate those fundamental 
laws for your success, as Dr. Bush outlines them here. 

You will find it different from any other work ever written 
on Will Power. The culmination of over twenty years of 
research and study, it deals in simple language with the pos¬ 
sibilities of every man—how you and everyone else may rise 
from the slough of mediocrity to the pinnacle of wealth and 

^Itteaches the great laws of success, health, and abundance. 

It teaches the simple, easy, everyday, workaday rules 
which will bring to you abundance—success—happiness— 
love. 

This book has been a guide-post which has steered many 
a traveler out of the ruts and mire of dismal struggle on to 
the smooth, oiled turnpike of a successful, happy, useful life. 

There is nothing mysterious, mystical or supernatural m 
the elements of success and happiness. 

There is nothing in this book which the humblest among us 
cannot understand and yet it appeals to those who are versed 
in literature and science as well. In the simple everyday 
language of the people it tells in an interesting, fascinating 
wav, the rules easily applicable to everyday life- 
PRICE In Cloth .$2.50 

David V. Bush, Publisher, 225 North Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 

........Illllllilll...IIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIHIIIUIIIIIIIIIlllllllllllllMllllllllIM 

537 






iiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiHiiiiiniiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiMiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiuiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiKiiii 


Applied Psychology and Scientific 
Living 

Success—to obtain the thing which one wishes 
most—is the great desire of everyone’s life. It may 
be position, money, love, influence, companionship or 
friends—there is one thing which stands as the su¬ 
preme goal towards which you strive. 

There are powers within you which will help you 
win this goal. There are talents and abilities that 
will make you a success. There are laws of life 
that will guide you to victory. 

Those laws of life are clear and simple if you will 
but learn them. These sleeping powers will rise to 
your aid if you but know the means to rouse them. 
You, too, can be a success if you will follow the 
teachings which have been laid down for you in 
David V. Bush’s “Applied Psychology and Scientific 
Living.” 

It is written simply and forcefully—anyone can 
understand it. The laws and rules that banish fear 
and poverty and summon happiness and success are 
all explained with exhaustive thoroughness. 

It is the book to which thousands point as the 
key to their success. 

It is the book that can lead you from the rut and 
set you on the highway to your goal. 

It teaches the Law of Abundance, the cure of Pov¬ 
erty, and how to double your efficiency. It discusses 
the power of visualization and how to make your 
dreams come true. It shows how you can overcome 
failure and environment and take your rightful place 
in life. 

The rules for eliminating Fear are clearly brought 
out. Love and the means of holding it are discussed. 
You are told how to develop personality and become 
beautiful. The Subconscious Mind and its many 
functions are exhaustively treated. 

You are told how you may put the Laws of Sug¬ 
gestion and Vibration to work for your own success, 
and how by the Chemistry of Emotion you can turn 
the negative thoughts of your mind to energy that 
will help you achieve your desires and obtain health. 

PRICE 

In Cloth.$3.50 

David V. Bush, Pub., 225 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 

HIIHIIIKIIUIIIIHIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllimilllUlllllllinillHIIlIIllllfllllllHIlillHIMIlMllltlllllllllllHMIl 

538 



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Practical Psychology and Sex Life 

By David V. Bush 

N OT one per cent of all married people actually understand or 
follow the proper sex relations. To 80 per cent of all married 
women the approaches of their husbands are repulsive. Sta¬ 
tistics show that 99 per cent of all divorces are the result of 
improper sex relations. Nearly 80 per cent of all female troubles 
are the result of malpractices and practically every case of nervous¬ 
ness and hysteria is the direct result of the lack of sex grati¬ 
fication. 

In this wonderful book, “Practical Psychology and Sex Life.’’ 
Dr. Bush has fearlessly torn aside the curtains of prudery and 
revealed the scientific methods of copulation and reproduction. In 
plain, understandable English he teaches proper sex relationship— 
how, when and where. 

It instructs a woman in dietetics and exercising during preg¬ 
nancy ; and tells her how, should she be past her menopause, she may 
become sexually active once more. 

With a stroke of the pen he severs the ties that bind us to 
the ignorant conventions of the past. The veil of silence is 
wrenched away and the happiness and harmony that come from 
righteous Sex Life are made understandable. 

This work is an epoch-maker in the history of Practical Psy¬ 
chology. Not alone in the realm of sex life, but in every other 
phase of psychology it stands pre-eminent. 

It discusses the Law of Vibration and how it works for busi¬ 
ness success and prosperity; it tells you how to raise the rate 
of your vibration for success, health and happiness. It provides 
you with the means of overcoming fear and worry and instructs 
you in how to get what you want. 

It reveals the secret of staying young. It teaches the methods 
of scientific sleeping, scientific feeding, and scientific breathing; 
the education of the subconscious mind and how you may put it 
to work for your success; how you may save your children from 
immorality. 

It shows how you may develop the powers of Hetero suggestion 
and become a healer; how constipation may be cured and surplus 
flesh reduced. 

It brings out the laws of scientific thinking, of spiritual com¬ 
munication and mental telepathy; it instructs you in scientific 
exercising and developing the power of concentration and memory 
retention. 

The laws of Visualization, Abundance and Stimulation are made 
simple and understandable. The means of finding your appointed 
vocation and of following the road that leads to your success are 
laid down in the clearest, most comprehensive fashion. 

“Practical Psychology and Sex Life," with 72 chapters, 800 
pages is a text-book for every man and woman who aspires to 
greater happiness, greater prosperity, greater success. It is the 
daily guide of thousands—it will work its wonders for you. 


Price 


.$25.00 


David V. Bush, Publisher, 225 North Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
,i„ ..mi....... iiihiii 

539 



niiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiMiiiiiiiiimiiimiimiiiiiMiiimiwMMiiiHHiHiiiiiiinii 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX—HOW TO 
MAKE LOVE AND MARRY 

A Book for Married and Unmarried People 
By David V. Bush 

This work, a sequel to “Practical Psychology and 
Sex Life,” is an exhaustive study of the rules which 
work for happy marriages and sex harmony. 

It is a plain statement of scientific facts. It calls 
“a spade a spade.” It teaches each one of us how we 
may choose the mate who is suited to us and how 
by following the scientific laws of sexology we may 
achieve the supreme happiness of life. 

It discusses the five planes on which a love-mate 
should be chosen. It tells how to discover whether 
another’s temperament is suited to your own and 
how you may attain the maximum enjoyment from 
their companionship. 

It instructs in methods which enable you to know 
those who are unfitted for marriage, either through 
disease or incompleteness. It teaches how to conduct 
a magnetic courtship and win the one in all the world 
who can make you happy. 

It shows the rhythmic sex tides which are part 
of every woman’s life. It shows how to discover 
these periods and the rules which should govern a 
husband’s actions during them. 

It instructs in the mutual adjustment of sex re¬ 
lations—what to do if a man is sterile or a woman 
barren; and how sex weakness can be cured and 
manhood restored without the use of a drop of medi¬ 
cine or drugs. 

It teaches frankly the science of copulation and 
perfect reproduction. It instructs the man in his 
duties toward his wife during the important period 
of pregnancy. 

It brings out the most difficult thing in married 
life for the man and shows him plainly how he may 
overcome it. 

It is at once the most comprehensive and clearly 
written book ever produced on this subject. It is a 
book that should be the guide and foundation for 
every marriage—the rule of life for every married 
couple. 

Price 

In Cloth, $3.50 

David V. Bush, Pub., 225 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
iiniiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiiiiiiiiimiiiimi 

540 


IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllIIIIIUIIlllIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIUllllllllIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIMIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMlinillllllllllllllllll 


Character Analysis 

How To Read People At Sight 

By David V. Bush, D.D.—W. Waugh, Ph.D, 

T HOUSANDS of ambitious, well-meaning men and women 
are not reaching their goal of success in life for a lack 
of a definite knowledge of the differences in people. 

If these people only knew the principles of Character 
Analysis—how it enables one to quickly read another— 
they would lose no time in acquiring so important an asset. 

Business men lose customers; employees lose positions; 
husbands lose wives and wives husbands, friendships are 
broken—money is lost and mothers do not understand 
their own children all for the lack of a proper under¬ 
standing of each other’s temperaments. 

To be able to correctly analyze another has a definite 
cash value—it has given pien wealth, influence and leader¬ 
ship—placed women in positions of social distinction and 
fame. 

To know how to read people at sight enables you to 
handle and manage others—gives you a power that will 
return you vast dividends in wealth, friends and success. 

With the knowledge this book gives, you will be able to 
impress, convince and persuade others—you will be able 
to adjust yourself to the various personalities you meet 
without creating friction or antagonism. 

An understanding of Character Analysis will permit 
parents to know the peculiarities and temperaments of 
their children and better enable them to govern and 
direct them. With such knowledge parents will be able to 
create an environment conducive to the child’s benefit. The 
future work or profession of the children can be selected 
along lines for which they are best fitted to make a success. 

Teachers armed with an understanding of Character 
Analysis can intelligently direct their pupils—can handle 
them without friction—can better understand the charac¬ 
teristics of the child and direct them along the right path. 

Business men will be better able to select types that con¬ 
form to the job at hand and will better understand how to 
manage employees to get the best results. They will know 
how to meet different types of men and convince them. 

Salesmen will find a knowledge such as this the key to 
their success. To be able to know a prospective customer 
—to understand his idiosyncrasy and temperament before 
attempting to sell him—to be able to work along a definite, 
well-defined plan suited to the man will assure more or¬ 
ders, friends and earnings. 

Never before has such a comprehensive and thorough 
treatise on this science been written. You will be quick to 
see the practicality, simplicity, and thoroughness with 
which the authors have gone into this subject. Character 
Analysis is a practical guide book to human nature. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiMimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmimiiiiiiiMiiiiimimiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

541 


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This book goes fully into the differences of the five types. 
It explains the differences, peculiarities and characteristics 
of blondes and brunettes. It covers the front face, profile, 
hands, skin, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, chin, the walk, voice, 
handshake, personal habits, expression and hundreds ot 
other points that have a direct bearing on Character. 

It contains eighty-four charts and pictures, each one a 
direct illustration of some feature bearing on a particular 
type. The largest and most complete book of its kind 
published. 

A brief outline follows below: 

Brain Anatomy. 

The Five Human Types—How they run true to form. 

Head Types —Forehead, front face, profiles, features, 
high, low, broad, round, narrow, square, long and short 
heads. 

Color—Brunettes and Blondes—Their peculiarities 
and characteristics. What you are and why you are. 

Hands —Not “palmistry,” but biology. 

Flexibility —Its meaning. 

Texture —Thin skin, delicate or rough and what it 
means to you. 

Nose, Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Chin— Significance and 
expression, which show you why you act as you do; 
why you are where you are and how to make the best 
of your talents; how to protect yourself from the wily, 
the “clever,” the dishonest and the pretender. 

Home and Marriage —Types that should and should 
not marry each other. 

Practical Parenthood. 

How you can make the most of your own type— 

Eliminating your weak points and how to build your 
strong points. 

In it you will find the latest discoveries in Psychology, 
Biology and Pedagogy that pertain to this subject. 

Be sure and read this book. It will open your eyes to a 
new world of understanding and point out the way to a 
greater success, no matter what your ambition in life is. 

More than 432 pages, substantially bound in cloth—a 
regular gold mine of knowledge and actual facts. 

Price, only.$7.50 

David V. Bush, Pub., 225 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
iiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

542 



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Psycho Analysis—Kinks in the Mind 

By David V. Bush 


HAT is the kink in your mind? Does your subconsci¬ 



ous mind entertain thoughts of fear, sickness, poverty, 


unhappiness—do you lack courage—have you been 
hampered in reaching your success goal—do you want to be 
master of self and your own destiny? Do you wish to con¬ 
quer disease—strengthen your personality—be more and do 
more? 

Here then is a way to overcome all these mental handi¬ 
caps and develop within yourself constructive action. Dr. 
Bush, through his vast experience in handling thousands of 
cases, has proved beyond a doubt that all sickness, poverty 
and unhappiness is caused by “KINKS” in the mind. When 
the store house of the intellect, the sub-conscious mind, be¬ 
comes clogged with morbid thoughts and destructive sug¬ 
gestions the physical being refuses to work in harmony. 

Dr. Bush tells you how to train your subconscious mind 
along the path of creative thinking. He points out the means 
of attaining the very things in life that your better self has 
longed for. He explains how you make your “Dreams of 
success come true” and he gives you actual examples. 

The secret of success, health and prosperity will no longer 
remain a secret to you, if you will read and follow the in¬ 
structions of this wonderful teacher. 

If you are sick this book tells you why you are sick—it 
explains the mental processes that react on your physical 
nature—it places within your reach the means of curing your¬ 
self and others. After reading it you will understand better 
the process of positive thinking—and you will be able to 
attune your physical nature so that it will work in harmony 
with your mental nature—you will understand how to take 
the “KINKS” out of the mind. 

A book that may mean the turning point in your life—one 
that you should get and read now—without a day’s delay. 

Price, per copy.$1.00 

....... 


543 



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Grit and Gumption 

"The truths a man carries about with him 
are his tools.” So said Oliver Wendell Holmes 
more than half a century ago. Dr. Bush has 
gathered from his own life and from an 
observation of the lives of others a vast 
quantity of truths—every one tested in the 
crucible of experience—each a marker and 
guide stone to life's achievement. 

Coupled with his original epigrams and 
suggestions he has delved deep into the lives 
of other successful men and women and dug 
out the actual WHY of their greatness and 
success. 

If because of the lack of Grit you have 
failed, this book points out to you the way 
to acquire Grit and make it help you over 
the rough place in life's highway. 

If for the lack of Gumption your dreams 
have not come true, this book will help you 
overcome timidity and encourage you to 
greater effort. 

This is a book for red-blooded, "up and 
doing” men and women who have a well de¬ 
fined goal and want to reach it. 

It will help you turn failure into success 
because it shows you HOW OTHERS have 
done so. 

It should be in the hands of every man and 
woman who aspires to gain for themselves 
the better, bigger things in life. 

More than 125 pages, bound in stiff card¬ 
board cover. Convenient pocket size. 

Price, per copy, only 

Paper. 50c 

David V. Bush, Pub., 225 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 


544 






The Universality of the Master Mind 

The Highest Plane of Consciousness. How to Reach 
It. Its Rewards. 

This is one of the most masterful treatises 
on the relation of Practical Psychology to 
practical Christianity ever written, and is at 
the same time, a noble and inspiring study 
of the life of the Great Carpenter, whom Dr. 
Bush characterizes as the Master Mind of 
the Ages. To read this great book is to know 
the life of Jesus of Nazareth in a way no 
other writer has ever depicted it. The book 
is prophetic, daring and unrelenting in its 
insistence upon the acceptance of Christ and 
His teaching in the orthodox church as well 
as in the various new schools of Psychology, 
New Thought, Jewry and advanced thinking. 
“The Universality of the Master Mind” 
marks a new epoch in applying the common 
sense principles of Psychology to the daily 
practices of the organized churches of 
today. 

Price, paper binding.50c 


David V. Bush, Pub., 225 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 


545 








Spunk 

W HAT do you picture when you hear the word 
SPUNK ? One of courage who knows no 
failure? One of indominatable will? One who 
faces life with a smile, and refuses to surrender no 
matter what the opposition, the trial, the tribula¬ 
tion? This priceless quality of courage that the 
English speaking people designate by the word 
SPUNK, as a more expressive definition of a char¬ 
acteristic loved and admired by all people, is the 
subject of a very interesting and highly helpful new 
book by Dr. Bush, who of all men should know what 
SPUNK means in its fullest sense. 

It was SPUNK that carried Napoleon on against 
terrific opposition to greatness. It was SPUNK 
that led Lincoln from the log cabin to immortal 
fame. It was SPUNK that brought the United 
States of America into existence. SPUNK will car¬ 
ry you far. SPUNK is nothing more than the cour¬ 
age of conviction, the will to do, the unconquerable 
desire to win—the never-say-die spirit that enables 
you to use in fullest measure the talents that God 
has given you, and the knowledge of the inexhaust¬ 
ible power of the mind that is yours. 

This new book by Dr. Bush is an inspiring sum¬ 
mons to courage. You can develop SPUNK. You 
can utilize SPUNK on every occasion needed. No 
matter how timid you may believe yourself now, no 
matter what rebuffs you accept, no matter what 
things you dare not to venture, you can develop your 
spirit of SPUNK and win. Send for this volume of 
strength, read it, know its secrets, and build your 
courage to conquer. The price is 50c. 

David V. Bush, Pub., 226 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago. Ill. 


546 











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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 








































































































































































